display week 2013 review and solid-state lighting issue

Transcription

DISPLAY WEEK 2013 REVIEW AND SOLID-STATE LIGHTING ISSUE
Official Monthly Publication of the Society for Information Display • www.informationdisplay.org
Sept./Oct. 2013
Vol. 29, No. 5
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ID TOC Issue5 p1_Layout 1 9/22/2013 8:33 PM Page 1
SID
SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY
ON THE COVER: Top right: The 2013 I-Zone
award for “Best Prototype at Display Week” is
Shinoda Plasma’s film-type display using plasmaarray tubes. From lower right, clockwise: This
year’s four Best-in-Show winners are: Cima
NanoTech’s self-assembling nanoparticle mesh
technology, E Ink’s three-pigment e-paper, 3M’s
quantum-dot enhancement film, and Universal
Display Corp.’s borderless flexible OLED lighting.
Background image courtesy of the Vancouver
Convention Centre.
DISPLAY WEEK 2013 REVIEW AND SOLID-STATE LIGHTING ISSUE
Official Monthly Publication of the Society for Information Display • www.informationdisplay.org
Sept./Oct. 2013
Vol. 29, No. 5
Information
DISPLAY
contents
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
VOL. 29, NO. 5
2
Editorial: A Visionary Destination
3
Industry News: LG and Samsung Bring Large, Curved OLED TV to Markert
4
Guest Editorial: OLED Lighting Edges Closer to Commercial Reality
6
I-Zone and Best-in-Show Winners
n By Stephen P. Atwood
n By Jenny Donelan
n By Sven Murano
Display Week Review
The Society for Information Display honored five exhibiting companies at Display Week 2013, the 50th
annual SID International Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition, in Vancouver last May. These companies
were Shinoda Plasma for best prototype in the Innovation Zone and Cima NanoTech, Universal Display
Corp., E Ink, and 3M for Best-in-Show winners on the exhibit floor.
n By Jenny Donelan
8
Touch Technology
2013 was a year of evolution and maturation for touch technology, with projected-capacitive dominating the
exhibit floor like never before. This article takes a close look at the state of p-cap at the Vancouver show, as
well as at the “Touch-Gesture-Motion” Market Focus Conference at Display Week.
n By Geoff Walker
Cover Design: Acapella Studios, Inc.
14
LCDs
LCDs dominate the display market despite challenges.
n By Alfred Poor
In the Next Issue of
Information Display
20
OLED and LCD TVs, Very-HighResolution Displays, and
Digital Signage
24
• Exciting Developments in Digital
Signage
• Interactive Digital Signage
• Digital Signage and ESLs in Europe
• The Metrics of Curved OLED TVs
• 4K x 2K: Manufacturing and Human
Factor
• The Perils and Pitfalls of Venture
Capitalism
• The Business of Displays in Europe
INFORMATION DISPLAY (ISSN 0362-0972) is published 6 times a
year for the Society for Information Display by Palisades Convention
Management, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10003;
William Klein, President and CEO. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS
OFFICES: Jay Morreale, Editor-in-Chief, Palisades Convention
Management, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10003;
telephone 212/460-9700. Send manuscripts to the attention of the
Editor, ID. SID HEADQUARTERS, for correspondence on subscriptions and membership: Society for Information Display, 1475
S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008; telephone 408/8793901, fax -3833. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Information Display is distributed
without charge to those qualified and to SID members as a benefit of
membership (annual dues $100.00). Subscriptions to others: U.S. &
Canada: $75.00 one year, $7.50 single copy; elsewhere: $100.00 one
year, $7.50 single copy. PRINTED by Wiley & Sons. PERMISSIONS:
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permitted to photocopy isolated articles for noncommercial classroom
use without fee. This permission does not apply to any special reports
or lists published in this magazine. For other copying, reprint or
republication permission, write to Society for Information Display, 1475
S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008. Copyright © 2013
Society for Information Display. All rights reserved.
3-D
The 3-D technology on the show floor this year was represented primarily by small, glasses-free displays with
improved image quality.
n By Ken Werner
OLEDs
TVs were not the only OLED-based products of interest at Display Week.
n By Sven Murano and Anke Lemke
28
e-Paper
A new product line from E Ink Corp. topped the surprises at this year’s show.
n By Jason C. Heikenfeld
31
Venture Capital Series: Part II: Raising Capital for Technology Ventures
Investors come in different packages. It’s important to know the various types, along with their pluses and
minuses. This article is the second of four in a series by a venture capital expert who has both launched and
funded new companies.
n By Helge Seetzen
Lighting
34
Frontline Technology: OLEDs for Professional Lighting Applications
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) already represent a strong market segment in display applications
such as mobile devices. In the lighting market, they are still in the beginning phase. To achieve a relevant
market segment, OLED technology has to compete in terms of performance, cost, and other unique features
against established light-source technologies.
n By Jörg Amelung, Christian Kirchhof, Tino Göhler, and Michael Eritt
38
Frontline Technology: High-Performance White-OLED Devices for Next-Generation Solid-State
Lighting
The efficacy of white OLEDs has reached 100 lm/W with RGB-phosphorescent emitters and lightextraction technologies. OLEDs have therefore already exceeded the efficacy of typical lighting equipment
with fluorescent lamps.
n By Kazuyuki Yamae, Hiroya Tsuji, Varutt Kittichungchit, Nobuhiro Ide, and Takuya Komoda
44
Frontline Technology: New Milestones for LED Lighting
Thin-film technology has enabled a new generation of high-brightness LEDs
n By Martin Behringer
49
SID News: Display Week 2014 Symposium to Feature OLED TV, Wearable Displays, 3D, and
Lighting
n By Jenny Donelan
52
Sustaining Members and Index to Advertisers
For Industry News, New Products, Current and Forthcoming Articles, see www.informationdisplay.org
Information Display 5/13
1
ID Editorial Issue5 p2,51_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:20 PM Page 2
editorial
Information
DISPLAY
A Visionary Destination
Executive Editor: Stephen P. Atwood
617/306-9729, satwood@azonix.com
by Stephen Atwood
The 50th annual Display Week event took place in Vancouver,
BC, on the beautiful west coast of Canada. Despite a relatively long plane ride for many of us, the trip was well
worth it. I arrived a couple of days early so I could get a
taste of the local ambiance before the crush of activities
ahead. Vancouver is a beautiful city with an endless array
of activities. It is very walkable and features some of the
best natural scenery I have ever seen. One example is Stanley Park, which encompasses about 1000 acres of beaches, rainforest, and hiking trails. I spent most of a day
there, following my own advice from last month about finding balance, and enjoyed
some majestic views along with learning a lot about the local environment.
Needless to say, this was truly a visionary destination for Display Week 2013. If
you were one of the lucky ones there then you know what I’m talking about. The
exhibitions of new technology delivered on their promises as did the great paper
presentations and seminars. There was a lot to see and do, and as I’ve observed every
year, it’s more than any one person can absorb. That’s why we bring in a team of
experts to cover it all for you. So, whether you were there or not, you’ll certainly
value the articles we’ve assembled in this annual Display Week review issue. Hopefully, they will whet your appetite for Display Week 2014 in San Diego, another postcard destination on the west coast of the U.S.
In our cover story this issue, Jenny Donelan reports on the winners of the SID Best
in Show awards for 2013. Each year, the award winners are chosen from a select and
highly competitive group of nominees in three categories. The process involves a dedicated group of industry experts who work incredibly hard to visit the exhibitors, learn
about their latest products and technologies, and then select the very best in each category. Each of these recipients truly deserves the recognition they have received.
No matter where you work in the display industry, you cannot avoid interacting with
touch technology. It’s become an integral part of so many consumer products and a
companion of countless display applications. This year, as our roving reporter and
frequent contributing editor Geoff Walker discovered that the touch industry is moving
toward a period of maturation, where almost every mainstream application uses touch
in some way. In most cases, that technology is projected-capacitive. Now the industry
is looking beyond touch to the next generation of interactive technologies, as we saw
so vividly at the Touch-Gesture-Motion Market Focus conference also held at Display
Week. Geoff covers it all in his article on touch technology.
Of course, LCD technology was dominant in practically every exhibit, as well as the
subject of countless papers and seminar subjects. Despite being ubiquitous, the technology is still evolving rapidly in new directions such as ultra-high resolution, very
large formats, sunlight readability, and extremely low power configurations. From
5-in. to over 110-in.screen sizes, our contributing editor Alfred Poor has it all covered
for you in his report on LCDs.
Stereoscopic LCDs burst onto the market a few years ago as a strategy to hopefully
boost the sales of new premium TVs. Although the strategy did not play out quite the
way manufacturers had hoped, it did generate a new interest for innovation in all types
of 3-D schemes including multi-plane projection, autostereoscopic, holography, and
related technologies. Many of these were on display at Display Week and long-time
(continued on page 51)
2
Editor-in-Chief: Jay Morreale
212/460-9700, jmorreale@pcm411.com
Managing Editor: Jenny Donelan
603/924-9628, jdonelan@pcm411.com
Advertising Sales Manager:
Joseph Tomaszewski
201-748-8895, jtomaszews@wiley.com
Advertising Sales Representative:
Roland Espinosa
201-748-6819, respinosa@wiley.com
Editorial Advisory Board
Stephen P. Atwood, Chair
Azonix Corp., U.S.A.
Helge Seetzen
TandemLaunch Technologies, Westmont, Quebec,
Canada
Allan Kmetz
Consultant, U.S.A.
Larry Weber
Consultant, U.S.A.
Guest Editors
Materials
Ion Bita, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies
OLEDs
Ho-Kyoon Chung, Sungkyunkwan University
Oxide TFTs
Arokia Nathan, University of Cambridge
3D Trends
Nikhil Balram, Ricoh Innovations
Touch and Interactivity
Geoﬀ Walker, Intel Corp.
e-Paper and Tablets
Russel Martin, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies
Lighting
Sven Murano, Novaled AG
Novel Displays
Brian Schowengerdt, University of Washington
Very-High-Resolution Displays
David Trczinski, Avid
Digital Signage
Terry Schmidt, Christie Digital Systems
Alan Koebel, Christie Digital Systems
Contributing Editors
Alfred Poor, Consultant
Steve Sechrist, Consultant
Paul Semenza, NPD DisplaySearch
Jason Heikenfeld, University of Cincinnati
The opinions expressed in editorials, columns, and
feature articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
the Executive Editor or Publisher of Information Display
Magazine, nor do they necessarily reflect the position of
the Society for Information Display.
ID Industry News Issue5 p3_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:23 PM Page 3
industry news
LG and Samsung Bring Large,
Curved OLED TVs to Market
For those not inclined to head to the beach
last summer, there was another option: stay
inside and watch big, beautiful OLED TVs.
In July, LG made its 55-in. curved OLED TV,
first demonstrated at CES last January,
available to the public. A few weeks later,
Samsung introduced its own 55-in. curved
unit.
The stay-at-home option would have
required deep pockets: at least as of last
summer, LG’s TV was retailing for $15,000
and Samsung’s for $9,000. Still, the commercial availability of these long-awaited TVs
represents a breakthrough. The sets are now
available through Best Buy in the U.S.
Information Display contacted a Best Buy
representative to find out what customer reaction has been thus far, but Best Buy had no
comment. According to the Best Buy Web
site, the LG unit must be ordered in stores and
is only on display in about 20 stores nationwide. There are no customer reviews posted
yet. (Note: At press time, the LG unit went on
sale on Amazon for $9,999 and the price was
lowered to the same amount on Best Buy.)
Consumer Reports recently reviewed the
Samsung unit and was uncharacteristically
gushing about it, saying the test TV performed
“brilliantly” and that the technology was a
potential game changer. (Consumer Reports
had not yet had the chance to review the LG
unit.) Issues such as burn-in and lifetime
still have to be tested and addressed, CR
cautiously added.1
Many industry experts are scratching their
heads as to why both Samsung and LG chose
to introduce OLED TV commercially in
curved rather than flat formats. The official
word from the companies is that the curvature
offers a more enhanced and immersive viewing experience. Time will tell whether the
curve catches on with consumers.
In the meantime, the OLED TVs keep coming and keep getting bigger. At press time,
LG had just unveiled a 77-in. UHD curved
OLED TV at IFA 2013 in Berlin. The unit
was a prototype.2
References
1
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/samsung
oled0813.htm
2
http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/06/lg-77inch-curved-uhd-oled/
Microsoft Buys Nokia’s Handset
Business
In early September, Microsoft announced that
it was buying Nokia’s smartphone and cellular
handset business for $7.2 billion, with $5 billion
going toward Nokia’s Devices & Services unit
and the other $2.2 billion to license Nokia’s
patents and mapping services. The Finnish
firm Nokia is the maker of the Lumia line of
smartphones, which run Microsoft’s Windows
Phone operating system.
Finland’s flagship company began as a
paper mill approximately 150 years ago and
went on to enjoy success in many areas,
including rubber, cable, and telecommunications. But Nokia has struggled with mobilephone sales recently, even as its Lumia
smartphone (winner of a 2013 SID Display
Application of the Year Silver Award) was
well received by both critics and consumers.
The acquisition appears to be designed to
provide Microsoft with hardware traction in
the mobile-devices market. Stephen Elop, a
former Microsoft employee who became
Nokia President and CEO and will now act as
Nokia Executive Vice President of Devices &
Services before returning, post-transition, to
Microsoft as an executive VP,1 spoke about
the deal in a Microsoft press release. “Building on our successful partnership, we can now
bring together the best of Microsoft’s software
engineering with the best of Nokia’s product
engineering, award-winning design, and global
sales, marketing, and manufacturing…. With
this combination of talented people, we have
the opportunity to accelerate the current
momentum and cutting-edge innovation of both
our smart devices and mobile-phone products.”
Going forward, according to a Nokia press
release, the agreement stipulates that “Nokia
continues to develop and sees significant
value in, advanced technologies, its patent
portfolio, and Nokia brand,” and that the company will be “focusing on NSN, HERE, and
Advanced Technologies post-transaction.”
The last three are divisions within Nokia.
References
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop
IFA 2013 Highlights
At press time, IFA 2013 was taking place in
Berlin. In addition to the aforementioned
77-in. OLED TV from LG, the following
display-related products were announced:
● A 56-in. 4K OLED TV from Sony.
● The HP Envy Recline, a tablet/laptop
hybrid with a 23- or 27-in. touch screen
on a stand that can pivot down off the
desk and over your lap.
● 4K UHD LCD TVs from Panasonic.
● 98- and 110-in. UHD LCD TVs from
Samsung, plus an UHD OLED TV.
● Samsung’s “Galaxy Gear” smart watch.
Projected Touch
By now, most of us have been in the situation
of wishing there was a touch interface that
isn’t there – on an iPod Classic, for example,
or an ATM window that requires you to press
the mechanical buttons to the side of the
screen rather than the images on the screen.
We seem to want it to be a touch-based world,
and a new product from Seattle-based Ubi
Interactive is designed to help us get there.
With a Kinect sensor, a computer running
Windows 8, a projector, and the Ubi interactive software, you can have a touch screen
on any surface. The user can interact with
the display using simple gestures as if the
projected image were a touch screen (Fig. 1).
The Ubi software analyzes the images
captured by the sensor to detect the position of
the user’s hands or fingers in the 3-D space in
front of the display. It can precisely determine when the user is in contact with the
display and pass this on as a touch event to
any touch-ready Windows 8 application. The
software starts at $149 for one touch point and
ranges up to $1499 for 20 touch points.
Fig. 1: Ubi’s interactive software, when used
with a Kinect sensor, a computer running
Windows 8, and a projector, allows any
surface to become a touch screen, as demonstrated at a recent architecture show at
California Polytechnic State University.
Photo courtesy Ubi Interactive.
3
ID Guest Editorial Issue5 p4,50_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:53 PM Page 4
guest editorial
SID EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OLED Lighting Edges Closer to Commercial
Reality
by Sven Murano
OLED lighting entered the stage about a decade ago with
significant enthusiasm behind it; however, one cannot fail
to notice that recently more skepticism can be heard from
market observers. Despite promising early design studies
and small-sized production campaigns, OLED lighting is
clearly struggling to generate significant sales volume. Even analysts – usually an
over-optimistic group – have become rather careful with their predictions for the
coming 2–3 years.
Does this mean OLED lighting will be stuck in its infancy? Is it already time to
write obituaries for this once-promising technology? Certainly not!
There are some very good reasons to be optimistic about the current phase of OLED
lighting and to see it as just a pause in the otherwise very dynamic development of
this technology. What seems to be holding back OLED lighting at the moment is
competition from inorganic LEDs. LED technology is impressing many with its
high-performance levels and constantly decreasing costs. LEDs have garnered a lot
of attention from lighting-market players who are still struggling with the adoption of
the solid-state lighting wave and are looking for solutions that work now.
This issue of Information Display features two articles that outline how OLED lighting can develop toward commercial success in the coming years – both technologywise and market-wise. Jörg Amelung from Tridonic gives us an overview of the
technological features that OLEDs offer and the market segments in which this technology can benefit from these features, which include slim areas emitting diffuse light
sources. The article also states which minimum performance requirements need to be
fulfilled in order to ensure market entry and which integration difficulties need to be
solved. The author also analyzes some devices that are available on the market today
and offers examples of some first applications from different lighting companies.
The article from Panasonic’s Kazuyuki Yamae focuses instead on the technological
progress of OLED technology for lighting applications. His team at Panasonic has
managed to achieve record-setting efficiency values for OLED lighting panels in
recent years by maximizing the light-extraction efficiencies of the devices. He shows
very nicely the fundamental optical problems that OLED developers must solve and
describes a solution that was discovered at Panasonic’s laboratories. Finally, he
provides an outlook of how efficiency levels should develop in the coming years, in
both R&D and commercial terms.
With both articles, you will have a good snapshot of the current state of OLED lighting technology, but none of the authors answers the question of when exactly OLED
lighting will make the move into our offices and living rooms. My personal expectation is that the breakthrough is just around the corner. Steady improvements in technological foundations are being made in labs all over the world and all of the big
players in Europe and Asia are just waiting for the right moment to ramp up their
production. At the same time, several smaller start-up companies are pushing into the
market in a search for their own niches, and this is keeping the bigger guys alert.
Lighting designers have developed an initial understanding of this new thing to come,
and luminaire makers are therefore beginning to implement OLEDs in their roadmaps.
(continued on page 50)
4
President: B. Berkeley
President-Elect: A. Ghosh
Regional VP, Americas: D. Eccles
Regional VP, Asia: B. Wang
Regional VP, Europe: P. Kathirgamanathan
Treasurer: Y. S. Kim
Secretary: H. Seetzen
Past President: M. Anandan
DIRECTORS
Bangalore: T. Ruckmongathen
Bay Area: J. Pollack
Beijing: X. Yan
Belarus: A. Smirnov
Canada: T. C. Schmidt
Dayton: D. G. Hopper
Delaware Valley: J. W. Parker III
Detroit: J. Kanicki
France: J-P. Parneix
Hong Kong: H. S. Kwok
India: Y. Mohapatra
Israel: G. Golan
Japan: K. Kondoh
Korea: K.-W. Whang
Latin America: A. Mammana
Los Angeles: L. Tannas
Mid-Atlantic: J. Kymissis
Mid-Europe: H. De Smet
New England: S. Atwood
Pacific Northwest: A. Abileah
Russia: V. Belyaev
Singapore: T. Wong
Southwest: S. O’Rourke
Taipei: J. Chen
Texas: Z. Yaniv
U.K. & Ireland: S. Day
Ukraine: V. Sergan
Upper Mid-West: B. Bahadur
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
50th Anniversary: L. Tannas
Academic: P. Bos
Archives: R. Donofrio
Audit: S. O’Rourke
Bylaws: T. Lowe
Chapter Formation – Europe: H. De Smet
Conventions: P. Drzaic
Conventions – Europe: I. Sage
Definitions & Standards: T. Fiske
Display Industry Awards: W. Chen
Honors & Awards: F. Luo
I-Zone: J. Kanicki
Investment: Y. S. Kim
Long-Range Planning: A. Ghosh
Membership: H.-S. Kwok
Nominating: A. Anandan
Publications: H. Seetzen
Senior Member Grade: A. Ghosh
Web Site: H. Seetzen
Web Activities: L. Palmateer
CHAPTER CHAIRS
Bangalore: S. Sambadam
Bay Area: R. Rao
Beijing: N. Xu
Belarus: V. A. Vyssotski
Canada: A. Kitai
Dayton: J. C. Byrd
Delaware Valley: J. Blake
Detroit: S. Palva
France: L. Vignau
Hong Kong: M. Wong
India: S. Kaura
Israel: I. Ben David
Japan: K. Kondo
Korea: Y. S. Kim
Latin America: V. Mammana
Los Angeles: L. Iboshi
Mid-Atlantic: G. Melnik
Mid-Europe: H. J. Lemp
New England: J. Gandhi
Pacific Northwest: K. Yugawa
Russia: V. Belyaev
Singapore/Malaysia: C. C. Chao
Southwest: M. Strnad
Taipei: C. C. Wu
Texas: R. Fink
U.K. & Ireland: M. Jones
Ukraine: V. Sorokin
Upper Mid-West: P. Downen
SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY
1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008
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e-mail: office@sid.org
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4vaporization
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9/22/2013 4:23:28 PM
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9/22/2013 4:26:17 PM
ID Donelan p6-12_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:59 PM Page 6
The Society for Information Display honored five exhibiting companies at Display Week 2013,
the 50th annual SID International Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition, in Vancouver last
May. These companies were Shinoda Plasma for best prototype in the Innovation Zone and
Cima NanoTech, Universal Display Corp., E Ink, and 3M for Best-in-Show winners on the
exhibit floor.
by Jenny Donelan with Alfred Poor
O
NE of the most exciting aspects of
Display Week is all the innovations you will
discover there. Some products are announced
just prior to the show, but most attendees,
including industry experts, do not really know
what the most innovative and interesting
exhibits will be until they see them on the show
floor. Both the Innovation Zone (I-Zone) and
the Best-in-Show awards were designed to highlight the kind of new and exciting technology
that debuts at Display Week.
The 19 exhibitors in the second-annual
I-Zone were chosen to participate on the basis
of their cutting-edge research and their ability
to demonstrate a working prototype at the
show. The presence of these companies,
many of them start-ups or research arms of
larger institutions, gave show-goers a look at
display technologies of the future. Although
every exhibitor in the I-Zone was chosen as
part of a competitive process, the winner of
the Best Prototype award, Shinoda Plasma,
demonstrated the best of the best, according to
the panel of experts who selected it.
is actually made of tiny tubes of glass that are
each plasma displays. The tubes are arranged
horizontally. Although the tubes cannot bend,
the carrier on which they are mounted is
flexible, so the entire mat of tubes can be
rolled parallel to their alignment, similar to a
bamboo window shade (Fig. 1).
Best-in-Show Winners
I-Zone Best Prototype
This year’s winner of the I-Zone award for
“Best Prototype at Display Week” was
Shinoda Plasma Co., Ltd., for its film-type
display using plasma tube arrays. The display
Jenny Donelan is the Managing Editor of
Information Display magazine. She can be
reached at jdonelan@pcm411.com.
6
Information Display contributing editor
Alfred Poor noted that although the module
shown in the I-Zone had tubes that were 1 mm
in diameter, a company representative indicated
that smaller 0.5-mm tubes are in development.
The tubes are filled with red, green, or blue
phosphor and grouped side-by side in threes
to create white pixels. The screen in Vancouver weighed less than 2 kilos per square
meter. This technology is currently available
for large commercial display installations, but
the company has plans for 100-in.-diagonal
high-definition roll-up models to be used by
consumers in the home. This article is based
on an ID Display Week blog entry by contributing editor Alfred Poor.
Fig. 1: Shinoda Plasma’s Best Prototype
winner resembles a home movie screen, but it
is, in fact, a rollable plasma-based display.
Photo courtesy Alfred Poor.
0362-0972/5/2013-006$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
Four companies – Cima Nanotech, Universal
Display Corp., E Ink, and 3M – won Best-inShow awards at Display Week 2013. These
were selected by the Display Awards Committee based on the significance of their development and/or product, for their potential impact
on the display industry and consumers of display products, and for their ability to generate
excitement within not only the display industry but also the general public and the media.
The awards were open to all exhibitors on the
show floor during Display Week 2013 and
were awarded to companies in small, medium,
and large exhibit categories. “The selection of
BIS award winners from among the many
exciting new developments presented in the
ID Donelan p6-12_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:59 PM Page 7
exhibits during Display Week is a daunting
and rewarding task that we all take very seriously,” says Robert Melcher, chairman of the
2013 awards committee.
Cima NanoTech for its self-assembling
silver nanoparticle mesh technology (small
exhibit): Cima NanoTech’s SANTE Technology
is a nanoparticle dispersion that self-assembles
into a random mesh-like structure when coated
onto a substrate, enabling it to become a transparent conductor. Other key benefits are low
surface resistance (< 25 W/o) at high transparency (~88%) and flexibility. Unlike
standard metal-mesh technology, the SANTE
nanoparticle dispersion’s random network
pattern on the surface of a film eliminates
the need to orientate the film to a non-moiré
position on a display screen.
Markets include EMI shielding, transparent
heating, large-format multi-touch displays,
OLED lighting, photovoltaic, electro-chromic,
flexible displays, and many more. Cima
NanoTech recently commercialized a SANTE
product line for EMI shielding and transparent
heating and a separate line for SANTE touch
films (Fig. 2).
Universal Display Corp. for its borderless
flexible OLED lighting (small exhibit
category): UDC’s all-phosphorescent OLED
lighting panel, built on a plastic substrate
system, uses UDC’s proprietary single hybridlayer UniversalBarrier encapsulation technology to meet the necessary packaging
requirements for OLED displays and lighting.
UDC’s encapsulation also provides complete
perimeter coverage for nearly edgeless or
“bezel-less” packaging, increasing the panel’s
active area and creating many new product
design possibilities (Fig. 3).
Fig. 2: This scanning electron microscope
photo of SANTE shows the random mesh-like
pattern formed by the nanoparticle dispersion.
Fig. 5: 3M’s new QDEF (quantum-dot
enhancement film) enables more vivid, trueto-life color for LCDs.
Fig. 3: UDC’s OLED lighting panel is built
on a flexible plastic substrate that is all but
bezel-less.
E Ink for its three-pigment electronicpaper display (medium exhibit category):
E Ink Spectra is the first three-pigment electronic ink to be offered in mass production
and was engineered specifically for electronic
shelf labels (ESLs). Products using Spectra
offer the same high-contrast, sunlight-read-
Fig. 4: E Ink’s Spectra adds a third color
– red – to E Ink’s black and white electrophoretic display technology.
able, low-power performance attributes of
monochrome E-Ink-based display types – but
now with the additional pop of red. The first
generation of Spectra will feature black,
white, and red pigments, and E Ink says it will
release additional colors in the future (Fig. 4).
By using ESLs with E Ink’s technology,
retailers have the ability to change pricing
strategies as needed in real time. Spectra allows
retailers to elevate the impact of their ESLs by
adding color to logos and quickly directing
consumers’ attention to important information, such as product sales and promotions.
3M for its quantum-dot color enhancement film (large exhibit category): 3M’s
Quantum Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF)
allows up to 50% more color than current
levels in LCD devices. Prior to QDEF, LCDs
typically were limited to displaying 35% or
less of the visible color spectrum. Widercolor-gamut displays, as enabled by QDEF,
will allow consumers to enjoy more visceral
and truer-to-life color (Fig. 5).
Quantum dots emit light at very precise
wavelengths. This means display makers can
use them to create a highly optimized backlight that produces the exact wavelengths of
red, green, and blue light needed by an LCD
for optimal color and energy performance.
Trillions of these quantum dots protected by
barrier film fit inside an LCD backlight unit.
The new film replaces one already found
inside LCD backlights, which means the
manufacturing process requires no new
equipment or process changes for the LCD
manufacturer.
3M teamed with Nanosys, Inc., to produce
the 3M QDEF product specifically to deliver
more color to devices such as smartphones,
tablets, and televisions. n
7
ID Walker p8-12_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:06 PM Page 8
touch-technology review
Display Week 2013 Review: Touch Technology
2013 was a year of evolution and maturation for touch technology, with projected-capacitive
dominating the exhibit floor like never before. This article takes a close look at the state of
p-cap at the Vancouver show, as well as at the “Touch-Gesture-Motion” Market Focus
Conference at Display Week.
by Geoff Walker
A
S recently as only 2 years ago, there
were 12 different touch technologies exhibited
at Display Week1; this year, there were only
four. Those were projected-capacitive (p-cap,
both discrete and embedded, at 21 of the 23
exhibitors), analog and/or digital resistive
(at 8 of the 23 exhibitors), electromagnetic
resonance (EMR) digitizer at one exhibitor, and
force-sensing at one exhibitor. That’s a big
change! The main reason for the change is
the expanded dominance of p-cap. According
to DisplaySearch,2 in 2013 p-cap will account
for 81.4% of units and 92.3% of revenue
shipped. Looking at the same data for all
touch technologies by commercial (traditional
“vertical markets”) vs. IT/CE (information
technology/consumer electronics) products,
95.0% of units and 97.0% of revenue will be
IT/CE. In other words, it’s all about p-cap,
and commercial and industrial applications
are becoming insignificant in the touch world.
Even with the reduced number of technologies shown, touch was still a big part of the
Display Week 2013 exhibition. The 23
exhibitors mentioned in the above paragraph
include those showing discrete touch modules,
embedded touch, and controllers. In total,
there were 63 touch-related exhibitors (35%
of 182 total) at Display Week 2013, as shown
in Table 1 below. (Note that many of the
materials exhibitors naturally serve both the
display and touch markets.)
Geoff Walker is a Senior Touch Technologist
at Intel. He has also been Information Display’s
Guest Editor for Touch & Interactivity since
2007. He can be contacted at geoff.walker
@intel.com, 408/765-0056 (office) or 408/
506-7556 (mobile).
Controllers
8
Embedded Touch
At Display Week 2012,3 embedded touch was
big news with the announcement of the first
high-volume shipments of hybrid in-cell/
on-cell by Sony (now part of Japan Displays,
Inc., or JDI). Not unexpectedly, JDI had the
most extensive exhibition of embedded touch
at Display Week 2013, with heavy promotion
of its somewhat-misleading brand name
“Pixel Eyes.” Figure 1 illustrates how Pixel
Eyes is assembled, from both a physical construction and a layer perspective.
As an example of its latest innovation,
JDI showed a 7-in. 2560 × 1600 (431 ppi)
IPS-LCD with Pixel Eyes that was configured
for use with a passive pen (only). At that
pixel density, anything drawn on the screen
Table 1: There were 63 touch-related exhibitors at Display Week 2013;
23 (36%) showed touch modules, controllers, or embedded touch;
22 (35%) showed touch materials or related processes and technology;
and 18 (29%) showed touch displays, integration, enhancements,
or market research. In this analysis, each exhibiting company is
counted only once, even though it could be in multiple categories.
Product Category
Exhibitors
Product Category
Exhibitors
Modules
15
Bonding
2
Adhesives
6
Market research
2
Enhancements
Metal & CNT films
8
5
Touch displays
5
Embedded touch
3
Glass
Integration
3
3
3
0362-0972/5/2013-008$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
Glass processing
EMR digitizer
Haptics
Laser patterning
Multi-touch self-capacitive
Pressure-sensing tiles
Passive styli
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Fig. 1: JDI’s (formerly Sony’s) “Pixel Eyes” hybrid in-cell/on-cell embedded touch is shown
from both a physical construction (left) and a layer perspective (right). For a more detailed
explanation of how it works, see Ref. 3. Source: Artwork by JDI; annotation on left by the
author.
was rendered with exquisite sharpness. The
entire display was only 1.78-mm thick,
including the cover glass. JDI was also showing its version of OGS (one-glass solution),
which it calls “Sensor on Cover Lens”
(illustrated in Fig. 2).
LG Display (LGD) showed hybrid in-cell/
on-cell embedded touch in a 7-in. LCD, where
the drive electrodes were on the oxide-TFT
glass (the same as JDI) but the sense electrodes
were on a PET film laminated between the
color-filter glass and the cover glass. LGD
named this configuration “F1T”, a creative
modification of the current p-cap layerconstruction abbreviation format. The signage
shown with the display allowed an observer to
calculate that 40 VCOM electrodes are grouped
to form each of 32 drive electrodes. The signage
also specified a minimum passive-stylus tip
diameter of 2.5 mm, which is not quite as good
as the typical 1.8–2.0 mm currently being
specified by the top touch-controller suppliers.
Unfortunately, the touch performance of the
display was very erratic. The booth staff suggested that the problem was too much electromagnetic interference (EMI) at the show. If
so, I look forward to better demonstrations in
the future when they work this out.
The third display manufacturer showing
embedded touch was Innolux. In a change of
strategy from last year’s “we supply all forms
of embedded touch” exhibit, Innolux this
year showed only on-cell in many different
displays, including a 4.5-in. 1280 × 720
(330 ppi) 2-D/3-D LCD. When questioned
about this change, booth staff said that
Innolux had decided to “keep LCD yields as
high as possible” by building the complete
cell, including glass thinning, and then adding
the touch screen. This approach results in
Fig. 2: JDI’s version of OGS (one-glass solution), called “Sensor on Cover Lens,” is compared
with conventional discrete (“outcell”) touch-sensor construction. Note that the total thickness
reduction gained through OGS is only 150 µm. Source: Artwork by JDI; annotation by the
author.
lower-quality ITO, since high-temperature
annealing cannot be done on a completed cell.
Innolux explained that its business priority
was to keep LCD cell yields at maximum, and
therefore it had to accept some performance
compromises in touch implementation. This
positioning was emphasized (perhaps inadvertently) by Innolux in its 39-in. touch display
made with ITO in a diamond pattern at 50 W/sq.
The ITO in this display (shown in Fig. 3) was
so visible that it almost seemed to be part of
the image.
In another change of strategy from last
year’s exhibit, Innolux did not make any use
of its “Touch On Display (TOD)” brand.
While the company confirmed that the brand
does cover all forms of embedded touch
(in-cell, hybrid in-cell/on-cell, and on-cell),
booth staff said that Innolux is only using the
brand “with customers.”
Projected Capacitive
Showing off its expertise in high-performance
large-format p-cap, 3M Touch showed a
prototype of its latest 55-in. touch-display
table. It truly was a prototype; underneath
the table was a standard laptop strapped to a
standard NEC LCD.
AMTouch USA (part of AMT-Taiwan)
showed a 21.5-in. p-cap touch display with
surprisingly good performance. In part, this
performance is due to AMTouch doing its
own controller firmware so it can provide
better support to commercial customers.
AMTouch is not the only supplier using this
strategy; another on the exhibit floor was
UICO. In UICO’s case, the primary reason
for doing its own controller firmware is to
optimize for industrial-application conditions
such as water and gloves. A supplier (also on
the exhibit floor) taking the opposite strategy
is Ocular; instead of doing its own firmware,
Ocular partners very closely with Atmel to
optimize for industrial-application conditions.
While visiting the Panjit (Mildex Optical)
booth, this author was able to take a picture
of the wide variety of sensors being shown.
Figure 4 shows a stack of seven Panjit p-cap
touch screens. This is actually a good example of the large quantity of touch-screen hardware that is available for close inspection on
the exhibit floor.
Other Touch Technologies
As noted in the introduction to this article, the
only other technology shown in any quantity
9
Fig. 3: Innolux’s 39-in. touch display was made with ITO in a diamond patternat 50 Ω/sq. The right-hand photo is a close-up of the area
outlined in red in the left-hand photo. The ITO is so visible it almost seems like part of the image. Source: Author photo.
on the exhibit floor was analog and/or digital
resistive. Of the eight exhibitors, the best in
the author’s opinion was Fujitsu. The reason
is that it was best able to clearly communicate
its differentiation in terms of features as
follows:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
4-, 5-, 7-wire and “gesture-touch” types
Pinch, rotate, flick, and swipe gestures
10-finger multi-touch via digital resistive
Film-glass and film-film-plastic construction
Very low activation force (“Feather
Touch”)
Drivers for Windows, Linux, and
Android
USB, serial, I2C, and SPI interfaces
Gorilla glass and plastic substrates
Anti-glare or clear finish
Instead of saying (in effect) “we sell resistive touch; everybody knows what that is,” the
company painstakingly identified its advantages and engaged visitors with demos that
fit the audience such as digital resistive for
military applications.
There actually was one additional touch
technology on the exhibit floor, but it wasn’t
identified as such. Bi-Source (BSI), a touchdisplay maker, used a 72-in. touch display
with traditional infrared as an attention-getter
for its booth. The author is fairly sure that it
was the only IR touch screen on the entire
floor.
10
Other Interesting Bits
Touch is so well-integrated into Display Week
that you really have to walk the entire show in
order to see everything that’s touch-related.
Exhibits of particular interest included Fogale,
Cima NanoTech, Canatu, and Samsung Display.
Fogale, based in France and exhibiting in the
Innovation Zone, was showing “multi-touch/
multi-touchless self-capacitive.” In these
times of pervasive mutual-capacitive p-cap,
self-capacitive is not something that’s seen
frequently. Fogale’s technology uses an
“active guard” to totally eliminate all parasitic
capacitance, allowing measurement of 0.0001
pF between an electrode and the target (this is
100× better than what’s possible with current
technologies). This active-guard approach
isolates a sense electrode (or an entire circuit)
from ground, thus eliminating the effect of
the parasitic capacitance between the sense
electrode and ground. It works by applying a
sinusoidal signal to the sense electrode; this
allows measurement of the current flowing
through the parasitic capacitance between a
sense electrode and ground. An exactly equal
signal is applied to a guard electrode that surrounds the sense electrode. Because the sense
and guard electrodes are at the same potential,
the leakage current from the sense electrode
to ground is reduced to essentially zero, thus
eliminating the effect of the parasitic capacitance.
Fogale is initially focusing its technology
on smartphones and tablets; it supports five
touches on a 5-in. screen and 10 touches on a
10-in. screen. When the user’s hand is hovering above the screen, Fogale supports recognition of individual fingertips at up to 5 cm, and
the whole hand at up to 8–10 cm. Accuracy
and linearity are better than 1 mm. Figure 5
shows a block diagram of Fogale’s controller
with a red dotted line around the portions that
are isolated by the active guard. Note that the
leakage capacitance shown in the drawing is
in terms of attofarads (1×10-18 farads).
Cima NanoTech is a relatively new entrant
in the ITO-replacement materials market; it
was showing a “self-assembling silver mesh.”
Cima’s material starts as an opaque liquid
that’s coated on film using industry-standard
equipment; 30 sec later the liquid dries into a
random-pattern silver mesh with 5-µm conductors and 150–300-µm open spaces – very
similar to the characteristics of printed metalmesh material. This product received a
Best-in-Show award at Display Week.
Canatu, based in Finland and exhibiting in
the Innovation Zone, was showing a new form
of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) called Carbon
NanoBuds. These are yet another new transparent conductor (i.e., ITO-replacement)
material consisting of carbon nanotubes with a
buckyball (fullerene) attached. Canatu claims
that the addition of buckyballs to some CNTs
makes the material much more able to combine with other materials due to some buckyballs having only five carbon atoms rather
than CNT’s six-atom structure. In the
author’s opinion, Canatu’s real breakthrough
is its “NanoBud Reactor,” which takes transparent film and carbon gases as inputs and
outputs a patterned touch sensor made with
relatively uniform length and relatively pure
CNTs. Solving the problems of length and
purity in a single manufacturing process is
something that the rest of the CNT industry
has not been able to accomplish yet.
Finally, among many other things, Samsung
Display showed a 23-in. “metal-wired touch”
display with a plastic cover lens. The touch
module was constructed of poly-methyl
methacrylate (PMMA) with an OCA-attached
film-sensor (made of either metal mesh or
silver nanowire; it wasn’t clear which). The
PMMA cover glass was particularly nice, with
anti-glare, a very good touch feel, and 5H
hardness. Unfortunately, the touch performance (rated for 10 touches) was not as good as
it could be; the system tended to drop touch
points when 10 touches were moving at high
speed. It may have just been over specified,
since the system performed acceptably with
two or three touches at moderate speed.
Summary of Observations from the
Exhibit Floor
The following are the author’s observations
after studying the exhibits:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
In previous years, the number of touch
module-makers exhibiting usually
exceeded the number of touch-materials
makers; in 2013, they were roughly
equal.
At least for Display Week, p-cap has
knocked out almost all other touch technologies except resistive.
Embedded touch in all forms (in-cell,
hybrid in-cell/on-cell, and on-cell) is
growing.
ITO replacements, especially metal
mesh, are growing.
Enhancements such as top-surface coatings, filters, and bonding are very important in commercial applications.
In general, Display Week touch
exhibitors tend to appeal more to commercial users than consumer users.
Even though p-cap is overwhelmingly
dominant, innovation in touch continues.
Fig. 4: This stack includes seven Panjit (Mildex Optical) p-cap touch screens. Source: Author
photo.
Market Focus Conference
Wednesday’s all-day “Touch-Gesture-Motion”
(TGM) Market Focus conference (produced
by IHS in cooperation with SID) consisted of
23 presentations focused on next-generation
touch-, gesture-, and motion-based technologies applicable to the display industry. In the
author’s experience, presentations at business/technology conferences such as this can
be classified into three groups: market or technology forecasts, product or company pitches,
and truly thought-provoking presentations that
transcend either of the first two. The first category is straightforward, usually consisting of
talks by analysts and technologists (including
the author). The challenge for all speakers at
business/technology conferences is to land in
the third category; the realities of marketing
and business typically force many (or most)
speakers into the second category.
At this TGM conference, there were four
presentations that the author found truly
thought-provoking; they were by York
University, Sensor Platforms, Elliptic Labs,
and Qualcomm. Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, a
professor at York University in Toronto,
Canada, presented “Is ‘Iron Man 2’ Right?
Re-Investigating 3D User Interfaces.” 4
Beginning with a video clip from the movie
Iron Man 2, showing superhero Tony Stark
commanding a “floating-in-the-air” 3-D userinterface (UI), Wolfgang’s presentation argued
that while floating objects look cool in
movies, they do not exist in reality and are
therefore a poor basis for a 3-D UI. Wolfgang
also showed results from several studies that
measured the throughput achieved with a variety
of 2-D and 3-D pointing and touch methods,
with the general conclusion that as the distance from the target increases and/or as 3-D
viewing is added, throughput goes down. In
other words, it is tough to beat the good old
mouse, even for manipulating 3-D objects!
During his presentation, Wolfgang noted that
in his opinion, the “Iron Man” trilogy should
be required viewing for students of 3-D UIs
(along with, of course, Minority Report) –
primarily as examples of what not to do!
Kevin Shaw, CTO of Sensor Platforms, presented “Context Awareness Using Sensors.”
Kevin defined context as “a framework that
provides understanding of an event.” Context
is transitory, multivariate, and personal; it is
not a gesture or a picture; and it must work for
everyone all the time. Kevin used a number
of common activities to illustrate the value of
context; these included answering the phone,
going to a meeting, reaching for toothpaste,
11
The astute reader may say, “Wait a minute!
The last three of those presentations sounded
suspiciously like product pitches!” True,
every presentation by a commercial enterprise
other than market or technology forecasts are
basically product or company pitches at heart.
What separates the wheat from the chaff is if
after a presentation I feel more knowledgeable
(educated), I’m excited about future possibilities, and I find myself thinking hard about
how what I just heard fits into my view of the
world.
Touch in Depth and Breadth
Fig. 5: A block diagram of Fogale’s “multi-touch/multi-touchless self-capacitive” controller
shows the components that are shielded with an “active guard” surrounded by a red dotted line.
Source: Excerpted from Fogale’s Exhibitor Forum presentation.
driving home, visiting your doctor, teaching a
class, and monitoring the driving behavior of
your teenage daughter. He then used the analogy of human senses and the brain to make
the point that mobile devices equipped with
(a) a variety of hard and soft sensors (he
showed a list of 16), (b) sophisticated algorithms, and (c) always-on sensing (i.e., continuous measurement) can become context
platforms that enable a new class of smart
mobile apps. In closing, Kevin showed the
power consumption of 10 common sensors
that ranged from 5 µA to 75 mA, making the
point that designing for low power is the
pre-eminent challenge in achieving his vision
of “context platforms.”
Tobias Dahl, the founder and CTO of
Elliptic Labs, presented “Touchless Ultrasound Gestures – from Physics to Use Cases.”
Tobias’s presentation explained in detail how
ultrasound can be used as a rich gesturerecognition platform technology. Tobias
started with the physics of ultrasound: (a) the
relatively slow speed of sound allows accurate
determination of relative motion even with
low bandwidth and only a few sensors and (b)
the wide field of view created by diffraction
allows sensing movements far away and up
close, with a 180° field of view. Next,
describing features derived from the physics,
Tobias explained that it is easy to create a
depth filter using ultrasound because ultrasound derives (x,y) position from multiplerange (z) measurements, while stereoscopic
12
optics derives z from multiple correlated (x,y)
positions. Finally, Tobias described nine
categories of gestures that can be used with
mobile devices, and five uses cases – including how ultrasonic-sensed gestures could be
used to play Angry Birds.
Francis MacDougall, Senior Director of
Gesture Technology at Qualcomm, presented
“Touch-Free Gestures for Next-Gen UX.”
Francis’s presentation focused on the emerging use of gestures in mainstream consumerelectronics devices. He used, as an example,
the Samsung Galaxy S4, analyzing the functionality of its five “air gestures,” as well as
the use-case for hover in five applications.
Francis pointed out that hover is now available in touch controllers from Cypress and
Synaptics and that hover is a standard part
of Android, implemented seamlessly with
other touch-screen event handling. Next,
Francis summarized the common near- and
far-field gestures in use today and described a
method of adding gestures to existing applications through the use of a “gesture layer.”
After summarizing some current and soon-tobe available hardware, Francis closed with
three pieces of advice to device-makers: (a)
focus on using gestures to enable user experiences that go beyond touch by speeding up
specific tasks, (b) rapid UI feedback for all
touch-free interactions is essential, and (c)
expect higher-fidelity gestures using emerging
technologies (such as ultrasound) in the next
12 months.
Once again, there was an amazing amount of
touch technology at Display Week 2013. This
is especially clear when one considers the
additional touch resources at Display Week
beyond the exhibits, including the 13 Symposium touch papers, the Sunday Short Course
on touch, the two Monday Seminars on touch,
the six Exhibitor’s Forum touch presentations
on Tuesday, the 23 presentations at Wednesday’s Market Focus “Touch-Gesture-Motion”
conference, and, finally, the seven Touch and
Interactivity posters presented in Thursday’s
Poster Session. It is these additional resources
that differentiate Display Week from any other
touch conference worldwide. While Asian
touch exhibitions such as Touch Taiwan5 (in
Taipei) or C-Touch6 (in Shenzhen) may have
more exhibits by touch module and material
suppliers, no other conference has Display
Week’s depth and breadth of presentations on
touch. If you are involved in the touch industry, you just can’t afford to miss Display Week
2014 in San Diego. Start planning for it now.
References
http://informationdisplay.org/IDArchive/2011
/JulyAugust/TouchTechnology.aspx
2
DisplaySearch, “Quarterly Touch Panel
Market Analysis Report” Q2-2013.
3
http://informationdisplay.org/IDArchive/2012/
September/DisplayWeek2012ReviewTouchTechnology.aspx
4
An earlier version of Professor Stuerzlinger’s
presentation can be viewed as a 27-minute
TEDx video at http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=3Q3Pft-xA0Y.
5
http://www.touchtaiwan.com/en/
6
http://www.chinaexhibition.com/Official_Site
/11-3311-C-TOUCH_2013_Shenzhen_- The_
11th_China_(Shenzhen)_International_Touchscreen_Exhibition.html n
1
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ID Poor p14-18_Layout 1 9/22/2013 4:34 PM Page 14
LCD review
Display Week 2013 Review: LCDs
LCDs dominate the display market despite challenges.
by Alfred Poor
H
ERE’S A MYSTERY: liquid-crystal
displays (LCDs) dominate just about every
information-display application worldwide
these days. Yet, to paraphrase Winston
Churchill’s famous quote about democracy,
LCDs are the worst form of display technology except for all the others that have been
tried.
Consider the following: It is a fussy technology that requires a complex switching
backplane. It is not a solid-state solution; it
actually requires that some components physically change their location and orientation in
order to work. And it is dreadfully inefficient
in that a typical active-matrix LCD consumes
95% or more of the transmitted light, even
when it’s showing a pure-white image. As a
result, you have to use very bright backlights,
which, in turn, require complex light recovery
and management components to make efficient use of this energy.
Yet, despite of all this, LCD technology
remains without question the dominant
electronic-display technology in the world.
Nowhere was this more evident than at SID’s
Display Week 2013 in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada, last May. From the
Exhibit Hall to the Symposium, it was clear at
every turn that LCD technology have an enormous lead over all other display technologies,
Alfred Poor is a Senior Member of SID and
Contributing Editor with Information Display
magazine. A speaker and writer with an international reputation, he has followed the display industry for decades, yet still gets excited
by the improvements in display technology.
He can be contacted by e-mail at apoor@
verizon.net.
14
and this situation is not likely to change soon.
It is true that cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) once
held a similar lead that seemed insurmountable, but current competing technologies are
not gaining much traction, while LCDs continue to improve. Organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) displays are starting to build
out from their beachhead in the mobile-device
market, but they remain a small factor in the
overall numbers. Reflective and bistable
displays continue to evolve and have had
some success in niche segments, but show
little sign of competing in any significant way
in broader markets. The fact remains that
LCD technology continues to improve – and
costs continue to fall – faster than the levels
achieved by competing technologies. This
makes it difficult for any alternative to mount
a serious challenge.
LCD industry revenues are forecast to grow
even as the unit prices of the products continue their steady decline. As was pointed out
by Sweta Dash from IHS at the Display Week
Business Conference, LCDs will generate
more than $120 billion in market value this
year, a figure that will climb to more than
$150 billion by 2017 (Fig. 1).
More Pixels
While there were many interesting improvements in LCD technology in evidence at
Display Week 2013, one clearly stands out
from the rest. The trend toward “4K” resolution displays is gaining momentum, which
was evident just about everywhere you turned
at Display Week.
For example, Mike Lucas, Senior VP of
Sony’s Home Entertainment and Sound
Group, addressed the Business Conference
0362-0972/5/2013-014$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
with a presentation on “4K: The Resolution
Revolution.” Citing nearly 75% penetration
of HDTVs in the U.S. and a move to larger set
sizes, he made the case for increasing resolution on TVs to 4K resolution (four times the
pixels of HDTV). More than 15,000 digital
cinemas already have projectors with 4K resolution, more than 100 feature films have been
released in 4K, services including Netflix are
developing prototype streaming services for
4K content, and Sony has a 4K media player
that can download new content from the
Internet. Clearly, many manufacturers are
hoping that 4K will revive flagging interest in
new televisions and help shorten the replacement cycle for consumers.
A 4K LCD was the recipient of one of the
SID Display Industry Awards this year. The
110-in. LCD TV from Shenzen China Star
Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) won the
Silver Award in the Display of the Year category. This model also supports 3-D TV using
active-shutter glasses, incorporates multitouch technology, and has a dynamic backlight to boost contrast performance.
Other 4K LCDs were on display in the
Exhibit Hall. Samsung showed its giant
85-in. prototype (Fig. 2) and LG showed its
nearly as enormous 84-in. screen (Fig. 3).
New technologies are also bringing these
high-resolution images to smaller screens.
For example, the metal-oxide IGZO backplanes have higher electron mobility than the
standard amorphous-silicon (a-Si) backplanes,
which makes it possible to create smaller
transistors for the active-matrix backplanes.
Sharp was showing a 31.5-in. LCD panel that
offers 4K resolution using an IGZO backplane
(Fig. 4).
Value (Millions of dollars)
$160,000
$140,000
Other
$120,000
$100,000
$80,000
$60,000
Monitors
$40,000
$20,000
$0
2010
2011
2012
Other
Cameras
Mobile Handset
Automotive
Mobile Handset
Tablets
Notebooks
Tablets
Notebooks
Monitors
TVs
TVs
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Source: IHS Inc.
Fig. 1: According to IHS, LCD worldwide revenues are forecast to continue to rise in the near future, despite stagnating television sales and
declining unit prices in general. (Source: IHS)
Smaller Pixels
In fact, the fabrication of smaller and smaller
pixels is another area where LCD technology
has been advancing. With the ever-growing
consumer interest in smartphones and tablets,
manufacturers are seeking to increase resolution as a differentiating feature. Smaller pixels
mean that a panel has more pixels per inch. In
order to create an active-matrix display, each
pixel must have at least one transistor switch.
These switches have to be small enough to let
some light through (the aperture ratio), so the
development of backplanes that support smaller
semiconductor devices is a primary driver for
higher resolutions. There were many examples
of displays with small pixel structures throughout the exhibit hall. For example, Samsung
showed a new 13.3-in. LCD panel with an
amazing 3200 × 1800-pixel resolution, which
works out to 276 pixels per inch (ppi).
That pales by comparison to the one that
Innolux was demonstrating. Its full HD
(1920 × 1080-pixel resolution) panel was only
5 in. on the diagonal. Using low-temperature
polysilicon (LTPS) TFTs for the backplane,
the panel was able to display 444 ppi. This is
all the more impressive because each pixel
was composed of four subpixels – red, green,
blue, and white – and the display also had a
panel border of just 0.5 mm.
Smarter Pixels
LCD pixels are not just getting smaller, they
are getting smarter, too. Sharp showed its
Memory LCD panels that have one bit of
memory embedded in each pixel of the
monochrome (black and white) displays
(Fig. 5). This makes it possible to greatly
reduce the power consumption required to
maintain an image compared with conventional LCD designs. Some models are
designed to run on 3-V dc power supplies,
making them compatible with standard
“button” batteries.
Fig. 2: Samsung was one of the major display makers showing products that raised the bar for
LCDs, including this 85-in. 4K panel. (Photo credit: Alfred Poor)
15
LCD review
dots can convert light of one wavelength to
another, and they can be tuned to produce a
very narrow range of wavelengths, which
results in precise colors. In turn, this greatly
increases the color gamut that LCD panels can
display. The film takes the place of another
film already used in LCD backlights, which
means that no production changes are required
to use this material with existing panels. (3M
won a Display Week 2013 Best-in-Show
award for this product.) Quantum dots are
also used by the Color IQ material made by
QD Vision. This is used in select models of
Sony’s BRAVIA LCD-TV product line and
helps increase the color gamut of the display.
Color IQ received the Gold Award for the SID
Component of the Year, which was presented
at Display Week 2013.
Many Kinds of Pixels
Fig. 3: LG also is helping to bring the “big screen” to living rooms worldwide with its 84-in.
4K LCD panel. (Photo credit: Alfred Poor)
Pixels are getting smarter in other ways as
well. Working in partnership with Nanosys,
3M announced its new Quantum Dot
Enhancement Film (QDEF). The quantum
Fig. 4: Sharp’s 31.5-in. LCD panel relies on an IGZO metal-oxide backplane to deliver 4K
resolution. (Photo credit: Alfred Poor)
16
These examples just scratch the surface of the
LCD products shown at Display Week 2013.
Some had unusual shapes or configurations.
For example, Kyocera showed a 2.5-in. round
LCD with a 240 × 240-pixel resolution. Japan
Display Inc. (JDI) had a rectangular LCD
panel designed for use in an automotive
instrument cluster. This panel had a hole in
the middle that would accept the shaft of a
conventional mechanical indicator. The result
is that automobile engineers can design
gauges that can provide different displays
using a physical pointer. JDI also had a
mockup of a car’s dashboard using curved and
circular LCDs (Fig. 6).
Other automotive panels were also in evidence, such as Kyocera’s rearview-mirror
display, which is already in production.
An area of specialization to note is highbrightness displays, which include sunlightreadable modules for use everywhere, from
avionics to bank ATMs. LG had a panel
intended for digital-signage applications that
boasted a luminance of 2000 nits (candelas/
square meter). MacroDisplay, Inc., demonstrated a novel approach to sunlight-readable
displays by using its directional light-guiding
film (DLGF). This allows an LCD panel to
employ both a backlight and a bright ambient
light as an illumination source, so that the
same panel can be used in daylight and indoor
settings. BrightView Technologies offers a
variety of high-brightness solutions and was
showing a choice of cold-cathode fluorescent
(CCFL) and light-emitting-diode (LED) backlights. The company also provides dimmable
panels, so the same display that is suitable for
high levels of ambient light can also be
dimmed for nighttime viewing. Mitsubishi
Electric Corp. and Santek were among other
LCD-panel providers offering high-brightness
products.
In addition to all these, there was a nearly
endless assortment of panels for industrial
applications and other uses. One interesting
development is that nearly all the LCD panels
offered now use LED backlights instead of
CCFLs. Many of the manufacturers and
vendors provide support for their clients who
want to switch from CCFLs to LEDs for the
panels used in their products. Endicott
Research Group (ERG) specializes in this
area and was showing a number of powerconversion products and drivers for LCD
backlights at Display Week. Renesas
Electronics America showed a wide variety
of panels from NLT Technologies, primarily
focused on value-added solutions for lowervolume applications. This company is affiliated with Tianma Microelectronics, which
showed a range of high-volume solutions.
These included panels with integrated
projected-capacitive (p-cap) touch, displays
for outdoor viewing that use transmissive or
reflective technology, and panels for specific
purposes such as medical applications.
Fig. 5: This tiny LCD panel from Sharp includes memory for each pixel, which greatly lowers
power consumption. (Photo credit: Alfred Poor)
Ho Lee and colleagues from LG Display
presented a comparison of LCD and OLED
performance in mobile displays, showing that
LCDs have some specific advantages for
resolution, contrast ratio, and color.
The LCD industry is an industry with an
apparently insurmountable lead in many
market segments. Part of the reason for this
status, despite the technology’s aforementioned shortcomings, is that the researchers
Moving Forward
If the Symposium is any measure of overall
interest in improving LCD technology, the
field continues to advance. Only the subject
of 3-D displays had more sessions devoted to
it than liquid crystals and related topics. If
you added the sessions on TFT and metaloxide semiconductor research, LCD topics
outnumbered them all. Perhaps the most
intriguing session of all was Session 5, which
presented three different views of the competition between LCD and OLED technology for
displays, especially in the mobile-device
market. The strong indication is that OLED
technology is not likely to mount a serious
challenge to LCD dominance, at least for the
short term. Industry-analyst David Barnes of
BizWitz gave a compelling analysis that predicts that no matter which technology wins
out, it is the consumer who will likely gain all
the benefit of the competition. Yasuhiro Ukai
from the Ukai Display Device Institute took
the position that LCD dominance is likely to
continue, although there is room for improvement in manufacturing efficiency. And Joun
Fig. 6: This curved automotive dashboard from JDI demonstrates the many ways that LCDs
can be adapted to bring new functionality to existing applications. (Photo credit: Alfred Poor)
17
LCD review
and the companies behind LCDs are not complacent. Competing technologies keep stepping up to challenge LCDs in one segment or
another and before they can do so, LCD technology raises the bar. Think of OLED technology’s edge in terms of color, contrast, and
panel thickness and how every year, LCDs
improve so as to lessen that edge on all three
counts. Display Week 2013 clearly demonstrated that liquid-crystal technology continues to provide the best value for many
applications by combining excellent performance with low cost, and that everyone
involved in the industry continues to invest
time and money to make these displays more
versatile and powerful than ever. n
JO IN S ID
We invite you to join SID to
participate in shaping the future
development of:
• Display technologies and displayrelated products
• Materials and components for
displays and display applications
• Manufacturing processes and
equipment
• New markets and applications
In every specialty you will find SID
members as leading contributors to
their profession.
http://www.sid.org/
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18
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9/22/2013 4:44:52 PM
ID Werner p20-22_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:18 PM Page 20
3-D review
Display Week 2013 Review: 3-D
The 3-D technology on the show floor this year was represented primarily by small, glassesfree displays with improved image quality.
by Ken Werner
T
HE topic of 3-D did not have a promising
start at SID’s Display Week 2013. In his keynote address, Bill Buxton of Microsoft Research
said, “3-D [television] was a demonstrably bad
idea before it even started.” He was referring
to the industry’s hope that 3-D could enable a
new generation of high-margin products that
would induce customers to replace the largely
commoditized 2-D LCD and plasma TVs
they had already bought. Said Buxton: “It
didn’t work out that way.”
It is widely accepted that 3-D TV is all but
dead in the North American market, and three
weeks after Buxton made his comment, ESPN
put a large additional nail in the coffin by
announcing it would discontinue its ESPN
3-D sports channel by the end of this year.
and very little at InfoComm in Orlando, which
followed Display Week by 3 weeks.
The Display Week exhibition did not deviate from this pattern. I saw only a modest
number of large 3-D screens on the show
floor. Two of these were LG Display’s 55-in.
AMOLEDs, in both the flat and curved versions. Only the curved version was showing
3-D content when I was at the booth, and both
versions used passive glasses.
Another 3-D example was from a more surprising source. Fraunhofer’s Heinrich Hertz
Institute (HHI) was showing a moderately
large (TV-sized) sample autostereoscopic display with “viewpoint adaptation.” Although
AS 3-D displays often have several viewing
zones for different angles of view, they are all
best viewed from a specific distance predetermined by the display’s design. HHI uses an
Adobe After Effects plug-in suite to generate
multiple sets of views from the standard
stereoscopic inputs. These multiview images
are compatible with many existing AS 3-D
displays, according to HHI Research Associ-
Large-Screen 3-D Largely Absent
One area in which you might think mediumand large-screen 3-D could work is digital
signage for advertising. Of course, the 3-D
would have to be autostereoscopic, that is,
glasses-free. And for several years, large
autostereoscopic (AS) 3-D demonstration
displays could be seen at Display Week and
elsewhere. But there was no AS 3-D signage
at the Digital Display Expo in late February
Ken Werner is Principal of Nutmeg Consultants, specializing in the display industry,
display manufacturing, display technology,
and display applications. He serves as Director
of Marketing for Tannas Electronic Displays
and is a regular contributor to HDTVexpert.
com and Insight Media’s Display Daily. He can
be reached at kwerner@nutmegconsultants.
com.
20
Fig. 1: The author’s finger points to imagery in Holografika’s HoloVizio light-field display.
(Photo: Ken Werner.)
0362-0972/5/2013-020$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
ate Bernd Duckstein. For the demo at Display
Week, there were three fixed viewing
distances that Duckstein selected manually,
but it is possible to automate the process by
detecting the viewer’s distance from the
display.
Although the large 3-D displays at this
year’s show were not the highlights, there was
an assortment of small–to–medium-sized AS
3-D screens, some of which were interesting.
The most compelling 3-D display at
Display Week was shown at the I-Zone, the
area designated for committee-reviewed tabletop exhibits for prototypes and innovative
demonstrations. Space is free to the chosen
exhibitors, thanks to the sponsorship of E Ink
and the efforts of the volunteers on the selection committee.
The device in question was the HoloVizio
Model 80WLT light-field display made by
Holografika Kft. in Budapest, Hungary (Fig. 1).
The display consisted of 80 projection
engines, each producing a 720p image,
according to Holografika CTO Peter Tamas
Kovacs, but the image on the exhibit floor
appeared to have considerably less resolution
than 720 lines. Kovacs said that may have
been the result of misalignment produced by
jostling in transit.
The display was driven by four GPUs contained in two computers that sat inside the
display’s large pedestal and which were
connected to the display with 20 dual-DVI
(a)
Fig. 2: NLT’s autostereoscopic 7.2-in. 2-D/3-D prototype exhibited very low cross-talk thanks
to its glass lenticular lens. (Photo: Ken Werner.)
cables. Ideally, said Kovacs, each of the 80
projection engines would show an independently captured image, but a studio session
with 80 video cameras is clearly not realistic.
So, the company uses four cameras and synthesizes the 80 separate views from them.
The result of this heavy-duty video processing is a 3-D display with a field of view of
180° and continuous motion parallax that
permits the viewer to “look behind” elements
of the image. The 3-D image is viewable
from any position in front of the display; there
(b)
Fig. 3: Innolux 4.5-in. 2-D/3-D autostereoscopic display was able to show 3-D images in both (a) landscape and (b) portrait orientations.
(Photo: Ken Werner.)
21
3-D review
are no dead zones. The 80WLT is available
for €60,000 by special order. Expect your unit
to be shipped 3 months after it is ordered, said
Kovacs.
Although the HoloVizio unit is undoubtedly
interesting, you will not be seeing very many
of them given the price and production rate.
So, it is perhaps fortunate that the bulk of the
3-D displays on the exhibit floor were small
AS 3-D LCDs. Most were unsurprising, but
left–right crosstalk is improving on average,
and some of the displays were based on
native-FHD (1920 × 1080) displays, which
does a lot for the image quality of the AS
image if the other engineering details are
taken care of properly.
Small AS 3-D Displays at the Show
NLT Technologies, formerly NEC LCD Technologies, was demonstrating its multiview
AS 3-D H×DP displays in which the horizontal
subpixel density is × times that of the vertical
subpixel density. In addition, each of the red,
green, and blue subpixels is arranged in rows
instead of the conventional columns. The
arrangement, an extension of the company’s
Horizontally Double-Density Pixels (HDDP)
arrangement, can display both 3-D and 2-D
images simultaneously by simply changing
the input data. And, says NLT, it displays
“perfect 2-D images” without 3-D/2-D
switching and delivers multiple views without
reducing the display’s native resolution.
NLT showed a 7.2-in. HDDP 2-D/3-D
prototype with viewing angles of 80/80 horizontally and 80/60 vertically, a contrast ratio
of 600:1, and a luminance of 370 nits (Fig. 2).
In addition, the display incorporated glass
lenticular lenses instead of polymer. The
result, explained NLT’s Engineering Manager
Bob Dunhouse, is less left–right cross-talk
because glass is more dimensionally stable
under prolonged heating by the backlight than
is polymer. The claim was supported by a
side-by-side comparison and an analysis that
showed that the Qualified Binocular Viewing
Space (QBVS) of a display with the glass lens
is twice that of conventional displays.
Innolux showed a 4.5-in. 2-D/3-D display
with 1280 × 720 pixels in 2-D and 640 × 720
in 3-D. Luminance in 2-D was 450 nits and
225 nits in 3-D. The interesting thing about
the display was that it could show a 3-D
image in both landscape [Fig. 3(a)] and
portrait [Fig. 3(b)] modes simply by being
rotated 90°. The display used a 2-D/3-D
switchable barrier.
Next on the Innolux counter was a similar
display with eye tracking. The angular range
over which the 3-D eye tracking operated was
rather limited, but an icon in the corner indicated when the image left the active range and
had automatically defaulted to 2-D.
Japan Display, Inc. (JDI) showed an automotive display in which an LC parallax
barrier was switched by tracking the viewer’s
head position, so the viewer’s (presumably the
driver’s) head was always in the display’s
sweet spot. The display was 12.2 in. on the
diagonal with a native 1920 × 720 pixels; the
3-D resolution was 960 × 720 (Fig. 4).
Tianma Microelectronics showed a WVGA
parallax-barrier 3-D module that produced
350 nits in 2-D and 180 nits in 3-D with a
contrast ratio of 800.
So, there was quite a bit of 3-D at Display
Week after all if you looked at the industrial
purveyors of smaller displays. And these
purveyors are learning how to make displays
with less cross-talk and more forgiving 3-D
sweet spots. It is clear that eye tracking is the
way to go for larger (but not large), singleuser AS 3-D displays, but is it needed for a
hand-held display in which the user can readily
– even unconsciously – adjust the angle of
view with a slight rotation of his or her hand.?
Consumers will make that decision for themselves – if head-tracking AS 3-D displays get
enough design wins to give consumers the
chance. n
SAVE THE DATE
Display Week 2014
Fig. 4: JDI’s 12.2-in. autostereoscopic automotive display utilized head tracking to keep the
driver’s eyes in the display’s sweet spot. (Photo: Ken Werner.)
22
June 1–6, 2014
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ID Murano p24-27_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:26 PM Page 24
OLED technology review
Display Week 2013 Review: OLEDs
TVs were not the only OLED-based products of interest at Display Week.
by Sven Murano and Anke Lemke
A
MID the beautiful scenery of Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, Display Week 2013
offered a great deal to visitors looking for the
latest in OLED technology. Even before the
exhibit opened, discussions about OLEDs
and, in particular, OLED TVs were featured
during the Business Conference on Monday
and also in the keynote speech given by
Samsung Display President & CEO, Dr.
Kinam Kim. In his talk, Kim described how
Samsung sees the display market of the future
being dominated by OLEDs. He considers it
the key display technology for coming display
generations.
Dr. Kim also painted an enticing future of
add-on features that OLEDs could enable for
displays to come, ranging from the close-athand, such as transparency and flexibility, to
the more visionary, such as displays with
embedded gas sensors or piezo-elements that
enable haptic feedback through the display
surface.
Some of those visionary developments
were on display on the exhibit floor in the
form of demonstrators or products. The
Futaba Corp. booth probably had the most
interesting and futuristic OLED demos. What
Futaba was showing were a number of transparent and flexible models, including a flexible OLED wristwatch with integrated touch
functionality (Fig. 1). In addition to these
Sven Murano joined Novaled in March 2004
and is Vice-President, Product Management.
He can be reached at sven.murano@novaled.
com. After several years of experience in the
semiconductor industry, Anke Lemke joined
Novaled in January 2005 and is Marketing
& Communications Manager.
24
demos, Futaba also showed its first transparent
OLED display product, which is used for the
Lenovo S800 smartphone.
Even though the displays at the Futaba
booth were based on a passive-matrix
approach, they all showed the potential of
OLEDs very nicely. Futaba appears to be
focused mainly on automotive applications,
which explains the company’s strong interest
in flexibility. This aligned nicely with an
observation by Samsung’s Dr. Kim, who
stated in his keynote speech: “There are no
flat surfaces inside a car.”
Samsung emphasized its product portfolio
of mobile devices at Display Week, showing
new versions of its OLED-based Galaxy S4
smartphones. Among the technical aspects
that the company highlighted were the excellent color space and low energy consumption
of OLEDs. With regard to the latter, Samsung
showed OLEDs and LCDs in direct comparison, claiming that 47% less energy is consumed by OLEDs in the so-called ALPM
(AMOLED low-power mode). Even though
this power-consumption comparison could
conceivably be questioned by the LCD camp,
the dynamic power consumption of OLEDs in
contrast to the virtually constant consumption
of LCDs in all driving situations was very
apparent.
Samsung also showed its new pixelarrangement scheme, which it calls the OLED
diamond (Fig. 2). This new type of PenTile
display (with twice as many green pixels as
Fig. 1: Futaba showed a futuristic watch with a curved OLED display.
0362-0972/5/2013-024$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
red and blue ones) is supposed to deliver even
better image quality than the earlier stripedpixel PenTile display layout used in its Galaxy
S3 model smartphone.
TV Progress
LG Display showed its 55-in. OLED TV set,
which has been commercially available for
quite some time on the Korean market. In
addition, it also showcased a curved 55-in.
AMOLED TV, which is now available for sale
in the U.S. as well as Korea (Fig. 3).
With those two items, LG Display certainly
highlighted its commitment to OLED-TV
technology. Until recently, it was the only
company with a commercially available largescreen OLED TV. (At press time, Samsung
Display had just introduced a curved 55-in.
OLED TV for sale in the U.S. as well as
Korea.) LG Display also showed a 5-in. HD
flexible OLED screen on a plastic foil substrate (Fig. 4). Besides the obvious freedom
of being able to shape the display in ways
beyond the usual planar restrictions of glass,
LG Display also emphasized the ruggedness
of such panels.
Early visitors to the booth of LG Display at
Display Week could try their luck with a hammer and a non-working dummy panel so as to
experience the shock resistance of the plastic
device themselves. However, shortly after the
opening of the show, the dummy panel mysteriously vanished from the booth.
A major topic at both the technical symposium and business conference was the question of how OLED TV can be best produced.
A common understanding throughout the talks
was that eventually printing processes could
be a workable solution for structuring and
fabricating OLED TVs. However, it was
also understood that such processes still
need at least a few more years of development in order to become mature enough for
manufacturing.
Therefore, for the time being, vacuum
evaporation of the OLED structures seems to
be the only feasible method of production.
With regard to this technology, the principle
line of debate spins around two very different
methods of producing the color subpixel
array. On one side is the method favored by
LG Display, which deposits a four-subpixel
array made up of a combination of fluorescent-blue- and phosphorescent-yellow-emitting materials in a white-emitting OLED
structure. (LG Display calls this “WOLED”
Fig. 2: Samsung demonstrated the brightness of an LCD (left) vs. an OLED (right) display
using its new “OLED Diamond” pixel scheme.
technology.) Each subpixel is then filtered
with red, green, blue, or white filters, making
up a four-subpixel matrix referred to as the
“RGBW” approach.
Samsung Display meanwhile currently
favors an approach in which the red, green,
and blue pixels are separate native color emitters without the need for any filter overlay.
The displays made by this method have only
RGB subpixels (no fourth white emitter);
however, in the case of Samsung Display
implementing the PenTile approach, there is a
higher ppi number for green than for R and B.
These subpixels are fabricated by an evaporation step through a shadow mask, in which the
RGB emitters are deposited through separate
shadow masks next to each other. This
structure is commonly referred to in the
OLED community as an RGB side-by-side
arrangement.
One new player in this field entered the ring
during the symposium – the Taiwanese
company AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) – which
reported results from a 65-in. AMOLED TV
that was also produced with shadow masks in
an RGB arrangement. AUO did not, however,
commit to production of devices with that
method during the conference.
The other big question that remains to be
answered is which backplane technology will
serve the future AMOLED TV market best.
Some presenters recommended oxide TFTs as
a possible solution. The products by LG
Display are based on this approach. On the
other hand, Samsung Display stated that it
prefers polycrystalline silicon at this time for
its OLED-TV development. An idea of the
currently running dispute over which technology is most effective could be obtained at
the keynote sessions, in which Dr. Kim of
Samsung Display advocated the polysilicon
approach and John F. Wager of Oregon State
University made a clear commitment to oxide
TFTs as the most promising approach. A discussion of the details of this debate would go
beyond the scope of this article, but it will be
very interesting to watch how this technological competition evolves.
25
OLED technology review
require improved backplanes, manufacturing,
and OLED pixel technologies.
Microdisplays and Lighting
Fig. 3: LG Display showed curved OLED TVs at Display Week.
In any case, AMOLED-TV development
will be strongly influenced by steadily
increasing competition with LCDs, which are
setting new standards in terms of resolution
and color gamut. Clearly, it can be seen that
the next generation of OLED-TV products
will have to answer the challenge of 4K × 2K
resolution and higher brightness, which
Fig. 4: LG Display showed a flexible OLED display on plastic foil substrate.
26
Returning to the exhibition floor, microdisplays based on the current wave of interest
generated by Google glass were of note.
Products and demonstrators of this technology
could be seen in the eMagin booth and also in
the I-Zone exhibit from SA Photonics, Inc.
The news that Google glass will use an OLED
microdisplay produced by Samsung Display
was announced on the last day of the exhibition.
Finally, a few words about OLED lighting.
There were limited demos during the exhibition at UDC’s and Novaled’s booth. Impressive improvements were, however, reported at
the symposium during the last sessions on
Friday morning. Panasonic reported a new
record, with a device achieving 114 lm/W in
the laboratory, using the company’s proprietary light-outcoupling technology. Hitachi
described progress in flexible lighting devices
made from solution processing, and LG Chem
reported on its 80-lm/W product, which will
be launched later this year. Also, in terms of
light extractions, some updates were given by
the glass-manufacturing companies AGC and
Saint-Gobain, which both reported on lightscattering substrates for enhanced light outcoupling for OLED lighting. In practical
terms for comparing the efficiencies of LED
and CCFL lighting products to the aforementioned OLED example, LEDs are passing the
200-lm/W limit in the lab, and commercial
products are at around 150 lm/W. CCFLs are
at around 80–100 lm/W, with little room for
improvement.
Finally, it should be mentioned that for
OLED electrode materials, several interesting
contributions have been made. Cambrios
reported on its “Bottom-Emitting Large-Area
Stacked White OLED with Silver Nanowire
Network as Transparent Anode,” which
detailed the benefits of the company’s
ClearOhm silver nanowire material as an
alternative to ITO for OLED solid-state lighting. ClearOhm transparent electrodes enable
efficiencies of more than 40 lm/W, improve
angle dependence of color, and can enable
metal-grid-free large-area OLED lighting
tiles, such as the 100-cm² (10 cm × 10 cm)
OLED tile that Cambrios created recently in
collaboration with Novaled.
IBM showed some progress on making
OLEDs on graphene electrodes, reaching up
to 60% quantum efficiency for a green
OLEDs using a laboratory outcoupling
regime. The American start-up company
nVerPix presented some OLED pixels on
carbon-nanotube electrodes.
If and when these new electrode materials
will be seen in OLED applications, such as
lighting and display tiles, remains uncertain,
but certainly the promises toward low cost
and flexibility are exciting.
In summary, Display Week 2013 showed an
overall positive momentum for OLEDs. In
particular, the commitment of the two major
players from Korea to OLED TV is reassuring
for the industry. Even though several engineering problems still remain to be solved in
terms of OLED manufacturing and lifetime,
there can be little doubt that, in the long run,
OLEDs will develop into a major display
technology, especially with its promise for
devices with additional functionalities such as
transparency and flexibility. n
Submit Your News Releases
Please send all press releases and new
product announcements to:
Jenny Donelan
Information Display Magazine
411 Lafayette Street, Suite 201
New York, NY 10003
Fax: 212.460.5460
e-mail: jdonelan@pcm411.com
Architects of World Class
Display Enhancements
EuropTec USA is a specialist in glass processing and
fabrication for the display industry. As an expert in
various finishing and processing technologies, we
design and manufacture products for display
applications.
PRODUCT & CAPABILITIES:
t&BHMF&UDI®&BHMF&UDI1MVT™JOEVTUSZT
CFTUQFSGPSNJOH"OUJ(MBSF(MBTT
t&BHMF&UDI5PVHI"OUJ(MBSF"MVNJOPTJMJDBUF(MBTT
t"OUJ3FøFDUJWF(MBTT
t7BOEBMQSPPGöMUFST
t4JML4DSFFOJOH
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t5FDIOJDBM1SPDFTTJOH$/$$VUUJOH&EHFXPSL
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APPLICATIONS:
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VISIT
INFORMATION
DISPLAY ON-LINE
For daily display
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ID Heikenfeld p28-30_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:28 PM Page 28
e-paper review
Display Week 2013 Review: e-Paper
A new product line from E Ink Corp. topped the surprises at this year’s show.
by Jason C. Heikenfeld
M
ANY OF US expect Display Week
to provide one of the best annual measures of
the momentum and status of advances in
display technology, and Display Week 2013
lived up to that expectation yet again as a
“can’t miss event.” The first measure of interest in reflective displays came at the e-Paper
seminar I gave on the day before the symposium and exhibit. The presentation was unfortunately the very last seminar of the day, in a
large room, and it was therefore pleasing to
see a sizable attendance for the second year in
a row. Clearly, there is strong industry desire
to understand what is available in e-Paper
today and what the future holds. Many of us
working in this area continue to field a barrage of inquiries for “zero-power,” sunlightlegible, super-lightweight, or flexible
displays, all of which e-Paper is uniquely
positioned to satisfy. Our response tends to
be: “We are working on it, stay tuned!” So
the demand for the next generation of e-Paper
products remains robust, and the remaining
question is what progress is being made to
satisfy that demand.
E Ink Corp. remains the dominant player in
the field, surrounded by a diverse set of technologies and small companies vying to grab
its market share through improved performance or to enable new applications unmet by
E Ink Corp’s electrophoretic imaging film.
Unlike in recent years at the show, it was not
the insurgent technologies or companies that
caused the greatest excitement in Vancouver;
Jason C. Heikenfeld is a Professor in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and
Computing Systems at the University of
Cincinnati. He can be reached at (513)
556-4763; heikenjc@ucmail.uc.edu.
28
it was E Ink Corp. itself. The big news
occurred on Tuesday in the form of a new
product line from E Ink Corp. that was not
incremental and not an R&D demo that would
never turn into a product.
The press release read: “E Ink Corp.
Launches Spectra, the World’s First True
Three-Pigment Electronic-Paper Display.”
This is significant for two reasons. First, it
shows a major investment and advance toward
capturing market share in the electronic-shelf
label and signage market. The market right
now is dominated by simple and dim reflective liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), with at
best poor color that is relegated to only subsections of the display. Now, with E Ink
Corp.’s Spectra, any part of the display can
provide a deep black, a brighter and more
paper-like white, or a red color to highlight
sales or promotions (Fig. 1).
E-Ink Spectra: How it works ...
The second reason for excitement steps us
back to last year’s breakthrough reported by
Fuji-Xerox on full-color electrophoretic
displays based on cyan/magenta/yellow
switchable particles. Many of us wondered
whether more than two particles (black and
white) could ever be commercialized. The
answer is now yes, and it should be interesting
to see just how far this type of technology can
continue to advance for signage. Don’t expect
it to lead to color eReaders anytime soon,
though, because each time you add another
colored particle, the switching speed slows
dramatically. The Spectra demos shown
provided only 1-bit gray scale. Nonetheless,
it is great to see a significantly new and
visibly compelling product from E Ink Corp.
Credit should be given also to the researchers
formerly at SiPix Corp. (which was acquired
by AUO and then by E Ink Corp.) who origi-
Example 3-color E-Ink Spectra Displays.
With business card for reference.
Fig. 1: E Ink Corp.’s Spectra, a new commercial product, adds a third color – red. At left is a
schematic showing how the new product works. In the middle are examples of three-color
labels that could be used as shelf labels in stores, and at right is a shot of a Spectra display
alongside the author’s paper business card (conveniently in red, black, and white) for comparison.
0362-0972/5/2013-028$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
nally developed the technology that underpins
this new E Ink Corp. product.
The fluid in E Ink has a level of “stickiness” to it, such that it takes a bit of a threshold of electric field to get colored particles
moving such that more weakly charged particles will move more slowly. The displays first
switch between black and white colors, as
normal, and in the process move the red particles to the back where they are invisible.
Then, a weaker second electric field is applied
to move the red particles to the front in select
regions, and, voila, now you have color without the losses of side-by-side color-filter systems such as RGBW (red, green, blue, and
white). Simply put, the demonstrated units at
the E Ink Corp. booth looked great. How long
then until additional colored particles can be
added? Despite Fuji-Xerox’s 2012 demonstration of full-color single pixels, the general
suspicion is that full-color operation is still
fairly far away from commercialization.
Other players showing e-Paper in the
exhibit hall included Sharp, Opalux, and
Qualcomm, each displaying familiar looking
e-Paper demonstrators. The Qualcomm booth
had two smartphones with the company’s
“next generation” mirasol technology. These
displays looked really, really good and completely superior to the performance of the
commercially available Kobo eReader that
uses mirasol. If e-Paper modules like this can
be manufactured economically, it would be
tough for any other technology to compete
with its visual performance in bright ambient
light. However, the prototypes were, in fact,
static images, meant to convey the expected
performance of a “multiposition” mirror that
uses optical interference to generate any pure
color within a single subpixel (except white,
which still significantly limits the maximum
possible white state). These static-image
prototypes are just thin-film interference
stacks, and I recall seeing similarly beautiful
static images shown a decade ago by Iridigm
(acquired by Qualcomm in 2004). Given the
manufacturing challenges Qualcomm had
faced for just the two-position mirrors, multiposition mirrors are likely to raise even more
difficult challenges (Fig. 2).
Also in the exhibit was the Japan Display,
Inc. (JDI), reflective-display prototype, which
I was able to see up close for the first time.
The color looks excellent for a reflective LCD
(Fig. 3). It employs a gain reflector. I was
very skeptical of gain reflectors until recently,
Fig. 2: Wouldn’t it be great if e-Paper displays looked like this? This “static” non-switchable
demonstrator from Qualcomm shows the excellent potential performance of a multi-position
mirror, next to a white business card for brightness comparison.
when through some of my own company’s
(Gamma Dynamics) developments I saw that,
if properly implemented, gain reflectors can
look diffuse over a wide viewing cone and in
diffuse or off-axis lighting. This is the case,
however, only if the reflector is properly
engineered and has adequate amplitude. Gain
reflectors, when they work best, leverage the
fact that for a personal device such as an
eReader, you can orient the panel toward
yourself. This allows the reflector to then do
at least one of two things: (1) reduce light loss
With business card for reference.
due to total-internal reflection (TIR) at the
front glass and (2) amplify the light falling
within the typical viewing cone of the user.
In the case of the color reflective LCD from
JDI, the designers chose to use a highly directional (and conventional) gain reflector that
does not make efficient use of off-axis
(diffuse) illumination. This was evident if
you blocked the directional light source above
the demo and permitted only diffusion illumination. So this embodiment would require a
bright ambient light source located just behind
With directional lighting at booth.
With diffuse (off-angle) lighting only.
Fig. 3: At left, the JDI color reflective LCD appears next to a business card for color reference.
The middle image shows the LCD with directional lighting at the booth, and the image at right
appears with the author’s portfolio blocking the light so the panel receives off-angle light only.
29
e-paper review
your head or shoulders to make a compelling
eReader or tablet display. However, such displays could be valuable in a fixed orientation
and lighting environment, which, for example,
signage or electronic shelf labels can provide.
Also to its credit, in its proceedings paper, JDI
does show diagrams and openly communicates
the lighting and measurement orientations
used in its characterization of performance.
The e-Paper symposium talks were all on
Tuesday this year, with a few other related
papers and posters scattered throughout the
remainder of the week. In the first talk of the
day, Seiko-Epson reported on a binary (1-bit,
only black/white) eReader based on E Ink that
allowed fast scrolling, page turning, and pen
input. I tried the pen input at the authorinterview session and it was nearly flawless
with seemingly immediate response. The talk
showed how high resolution (300 ppi) can
help spatially dither gray-scale images with
fast 1-bit E-Ink switching. Most importantly,
the talk provided human-perception tests that
show that simple black/white operation might
be better for dedicated reading and office
documents – applications for which the faster
page turning, scrolling, and pen-input might
bring real value to the user. It has been
known for some time that E Ink can provide
fast switching if you are willing to give up
some or all gray scale, and, for video demos,
sacrifice display contrast.
During the second e-Paper session, my
Ph.D. student Matthew Hagedon delivered an
invited talk on “Progress in Electrofluidic
Imaging Film.” The data presented supports
an argument that this is the only known technology with a roadmap that can provide high
resolution, video speed, and SNAP (newsprint)
quality color. Unfortunately, as I am intimately aware, the technology development is
early stage, only about 18 months old, and
active-matrix-driven modules are just now in
development. One promising demonstration
for the electrofluidic imaging film, though,
was basic proof of concept for passive-matrix
addressing. Passive-matrix addressing is
highly desirable for applications such as
signage and electronic shelf labels, where low
cost is critical. Passive-matrix addressing
is something that E Ink currently cannot
provide.
In the second e-Paper session, IRX Innovations (Henzen et al.) presented some much
more sophisticated active-matrix-driven
electro-osmotic display technology (Fig. 4).
This approach is unique in terms of particle
movement, but not enough information was
presented to provide a deep understanding of
the underlying physics. The early prototype
results were modest (3:1 contrast, slow
switching of several seconds) but the team
from IRX maintains that the upside potential
includes a maximum white state near 70% in
Fig. 4: Alex Henzen of IRX Innovations displays active-matrix magenta and yellow modules
built on electro-osmotic technology.
30
stacked CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) operation and near-video speeds. The electroosmotic approach is novel in many ways and
will be worth following closely as IRX continues to develop the technology.
Another talk of note was given by Norihisa
Kobayashi from Chiba University. Prof.
Kobayashi was part of the early electrochromic material development that led to
Ricoh’s recent demonstration of a strikingly
beautiful color active-matrix electrochromic
display. This year, he presented a single
electrochromic cell that could switch between
a clear state, a black state, and also a mirror
reflector state. Although this is early-stage
work, and the maximum number of switching
cycles is unknown, I can imagine many interesting applications ranging from switchable
mirrors, to privacy windows, to light- and
thermal-management technology.
The last note of interest came not at Display
Week 2013, but right before the conference,
with the revelation that Amazon had just purchased Liquavista from Samsung. The history
of this company began with Philips, from
which it was spun off in 2006. Then it was
purchased by Samsung, then Amazon. Time
will tell what this all means. It has been clear
for some time, especially with its investment
in Lab 126, that Amazon takes the hardware
side of displays quite seriously. The speculation is, of course, that this could lead to a
next-generation color-video reflective
eReader or tablet product from Amazon.
With Display Week 2013 now behind us,
progress clearly continues on all fronts. Without doubt, e-Paper is a real and growing
segment of the display industry. What is less
clear is how much longer it will take to satisfy
consumer and corporate demands for the next
generation of e-Paper technology. OLEDs
and LCDs will continue to battle it out in
coming years, but neither will supplant many
of the e-Paper applications. With the huge
shift to LCD tablets already enacted, e-Paper
is left to control much of its future destiny and
that will depend on its ability to provide bright
whites, more saturated color, and access to
broader media content such as seamless web
browsing and at least crude animation/video.
Looking forward to 2014! n
ID Seetzen p31-33_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:40 PM Page 31
venture capital series
Raising Capital for Technology Ventures
Investors come in different packages. It’s important to know the various types, along with
their pluses and minuses. This article is the second of four in a series by a venture capital
expert who has both launched and funded new companies.
by Helge Seetzen
I
N the first article of this series, we talked
about the fundamental building blocks of a
new technology venture: inventions and
teams. It is a fact that this talent generally
wants to be paid. Almost all technology
ventures need significant capital to grow their
operations.1 Unless the founders can contribute significant personal cash, something I
would not recommend even if possible, that
money needs to come from external investors.
Exceptions are usually limited to service businesses
that can generate immediate revenue. This is rare
for genuine technology ventures where the product,
the technology, still requires significant development before it can be commercialized. In this context, it is also important to remember that venture
implies growth. Businesses that essentially outsource the work of the principals as consulting or
contract work might be able to self-finance from the
start, but are best described as self-employment and
not ventures. Venture capital investors will certainly
not be interested in such opportunities, even if they
provide very nice lifestyle returns for the principals.
1
Helge Seetzen is CEO of TandemLaunch
Technologies, a Quebec-based company that
commercializes early-stage technologies from
universities for its partners at major consumer
electronic brands. He also co-founded
Sunnybrook Technologies and later BrightSide
Technologies to commercialize display technologies developed at the University of British
Columbia. He has published over 20 articles
and holds 30 patents with an additional 30
pending U.S. applications. He has a Ph.D. in
interdisciplinary imaging technology (physics
and computer science) from the University of
British Columbia.
In this article, we will talk about the different
sources of investment, their requirements, and
typical valuations and terms.
Capital Needs
The first step is to identify the capital needs of
your venture. Few technology businesses
achieve profitability after a single round of
financing, so it is worth planning multiple
investment rounds. The time horizon between
rounds thus becomes the determinant of the
capital needs of the business. Each round will
ideally be raised at a higher valuation than the
last one – failure to do so will make your
earlier investors very unhappy, with often
painful consequences for your ownership of
the business. Thus, the goal is to raise enough
money to achieve a material increase in valuation and then have sufficient time left to raise
the new round.
For convenience, investment rounds are
often given names such as Seed Round, Series
A, Series B, Series C, etc. The labels have no
firm meaning and are sequential (e.g., Series
B is the second round raised after a Series A).
That said, common understanding in the
industry defines typical rounds as follows:
Seed Round (usually below $500K): The
initial team is in place with a business plan,
but things are usually still a bit rough around
the edges. The capital will likely be used to
complete the core of the business and build
the first product prototypes. Revenue is generally not expected.
Series A ($1 million - $3 million): Usually
this is the first major and/or institutional
round. The business is fully operational with
0362-0972/5/2013-031$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
possible initial revenue. Certainly, some form
of market validation should be in place, as
well as all the core team roles filled with highquality people.
Series B ($3 million +): At this stage, the
engine of the business is humming and the
new capital just adds more fuel. The focus
will be on scaling and growth management.
Of course, there are plenty of companies that
raise a Series B, i.e., their second institutional
round, while still looking like the Series A
company described above, but that’s generally
a sign of something having gone wrong or
both rounds being smaller than usual2 (see
Fig. 1).
Most early-stage companies will consider
either a Seed Round or maybe an early Series
A if they are able to bootstrap through the
Seed stage without raising significant external
capital (possibly with the help of the three
“Fs” – Friends, Family, and Fools.
When determining capital requirements,
consider how much money the business needs
to go from one stage to the next. So, if you
are raising a Seed Round, consider how long
it will take to achieve product revenue and full
team build-out (the general criteria for Series
BrightSide Technologies, Inc., my second venture,
was an example of the latter. For business reasons,
we raised the first five rounds of angel financing
below $1 million each. At that point, we were technically raising a Series F, but in practical terms we
had raised less than $4 million total and were thus
functionally similar to a Series A company. Valuation rose with each of our rounds, and the final outcome was a success for all investors, so the above
guidelines are not definitive by any means.
2
31
A). Then, add at least 30% as a buffer since
nothing ever works as planned in a startup.
Finally, add 6 months of additional operating
time to account for the fact that fundraising
itself takes time. The total amount needed
over this period defines the capital requirement for your new round. With that number
in hand, you can consider the different funding sources available to early stage technology
ventures.
Sources of Funding
We currently live in a fortunate time for entrepreneurs – investment capital is readily available. However, times do change, apparently
fairly cyclically, so enjoy these years while
they last.3 But money comes from many different sources. In practice, however, the wide
variety of investor types can be grouped into
three principal sources of funding:
Accelerators: These entities tend to provide much of their value in kind, through
mentorship, support, and services, but often
also invest relatively small amounts of money
into the business (usually tens of thousands of
dollars but rarely more). With a few exceptions, accelerators are designed for ventures
that require assistance to get off the ground
with the money being usually a secondary
benefit – so evaluate them based on the value
of the offered support in relation to your
venture’s weaknesses.
Angel Investors: Angel investors are high
net-worth individuals willing to invest in
early-stage companies. Many of them are
former entrepreneurs who are keen on experiencing the start-up rollercoaster but, ideally,
without putting their nose all the way to the
grindstone again. They tend to invest relatively modest amounts, with $25K–250K
being a common range per investor. Fortunately, angels tend to work in groups, often in
formally organized networks, so it is usually
possible to raise combined rounds of angel
capital up to about $1.5 million.
Venture Capital: Professional investors,
called Venture Capitalists (VCs), manage
significant funds on behalf of their limited
partner (e.g., pension funds, government
3
Those who feel that fundraising today is too difficult should talk to veterans of earlier times. For
example, Sunnybrook Technologies. Inc., my first
venture, started fundraising in 2001 – hardly a time
when IT technology start-ups were popular, given
the recent demise of nearly the entire sector in the
dot-com bubble.
32
Fig. 1: The valuation history of BrightSide Technologies (one of the author’s ventures) is shown
over a period of 5 years.
funding, large corporations, etc.). Such funds
come in different sizes and shapes, but commonly invest upward of $500K during initial
rounds. Unlike angels, venture capitalists also
have the ability to follow their initial investment with major secondary and tertiary
investment rounds, reaching often into the
tens of millions of dollars.
These are the three most common types of
investors for early-stage technology ventures.4
Of course, the world is full of variance,
including the more recently emerged concept
of super angels – effectively venture capitalists
who manage smaller funds and behave more
like angel investors. Nevertheless, it is easiest
to think of investors in these three broad categories: those that assist, those that invest their
own money, and those that invest other people’s
money. These distinctions make a major
difference in terms of the amount of available
capital and the goals of the investors.
Angel investors are generally more comfortable with modest returns but usually also
want to see some cash coming back to them in
a shorter time frame than VCs. A common
rule of thumb is that a 2–3× return in 3–4
years will make most angels happy. Venture
capital funds can deploy much more capital
Non-investment sources of funding of course also
exist: grants, loans, subsidies, etc. Most of those
are often inaccessible for early-stage ventures,
though I would encourage all entrepreneurs to at
least canvass the available economic development
grants in their jurisdiction – free money is always a
blessing for any new venture.
4
over longer fund cycles of 10–12 years, but
also have much more aggressive 5–10× return
goals due to their non-linear compensation
structure (more on this next month). Individual investment goals of course vary greatly, so
I would strongly recommend an open discussion before you seal your new relationship.
In general, it is a good idea to build a positive
relationship with future investors long before
you need their money – date first, then marry.
Often the match-up between capital needs
and sources of funding is fairly obvious at this
point. Service business or other opportunities
with limited capital requirements are often
better served by angel investors. On the other
hand, if your business plan requires $10 million+
to build a viable product or advanced demo,
then venture capital is likely the only way to
go.
Maybe you can find an accelerator with
good access to deep-pocket VC funds or some
well-connected angels, but your road will
eventually lead you through the doors of a
VC. Once on this road, make sure to optimize
your business strategy around the goals and
timelines of venture capital. Display hardware
projects are commonly on this trajectory, with
all the positive and negative implications.
Of course, reality is rarely this conveniently
defined, so all kinds of mixed deals are possible. Some ventures are able to combine
angels and seed VC investors; some use a
strong group of angel investors to drum up
support for a high-valuation VC round, and so
forth. But such schemes are usually best left
to seasoned entrepreneurs – managing different interests is a difficult game with generous
amounts of pain waiting on the sidelines if
you get off track.
Valuation and Terms
Once you have defined your investment
sources and have built a good relationship
with them, there comes the magic moment
when you receive a term sheet. As the name
implies, this is a short document listing the
principal terms of the investment deal. That
document will have two important numbers:
the size of the investment and the valuation of
your company. Let’s ignore the more complex terms for now and focus on the most
basic scenario to explain the terminology: if
you are raising $1 million and your company
is deemed to be worth $3 million, then your
“pre-money valuation” is said to be $3 million
and your “post-money valuation” will be $4
million. Post-money, you will of course only
own 75% of your company ($3 million out of
$4 million) so you will have experienced a
25% “dilution.”
Post-money valuation is just pre-money
plus cash raised, but how is the pre-money
valuation determined? At this point the technical reader will likely expect a complex
formula but reality is much less fancy (at least
until you reach the earnings-based valuation
models of late-stage ventures). Counterintuitively, your early-stage valuation is less
about the value elements of your business and
more about the type of investor you can
attract. Most investors will take 20–40% of
your company for each round of financing
regardless of the amount invested. Thus, a
VC Series A round of $2 million tends to have
pre-money valuations of $3 million – $5 million,
while an angel seed round of $500K will have
pre-money valuations of about $1 million –
$2 million. There are, of course, plenty of
exceptions, but as a rule of thumb this tends to
hold fairly well for early stage rounds.
So, why use an approach that is so unscienOne of the most common business failures comes
from a lack of understanding of advancement criteria. A growing company might be capped to an ~$4
million valuation range simply because its local
angel group cannot find more than $1 million in
capital and cannot close the deal if its members get
less than 20% of the company per round. If the
CEO cannot advance to the next investor group, the
company is likely doomed no matter its business
success.
5
tific? It’s about time and mind-share. The
stake for investors needs to be small enough
to leave incentive for the management team
and large enough to make their mind-share
investment worthwhile. For example, most
VC funds are expected to have one of their
partners sit on the Board of Directors of each
of their investments. Since a partner can only
reasonably sit on about five boards, they need
to make large enough investments to make
each deal worth their time. Thus, what
changes during early stage rounds is the
amount of money you get for a given funding
round of 20–40% dilution – hot companies
getting more while weaker ones get less.
The goal then is to rapidly advance your
venture to the point where it can raise money
from investors with deeper pockets, watching
your effectively pre-money valuation rise as a
side effect.5 Do not spend on infrastructure,
support hires, or anything else that does not
contribute to the advance to the next investor
class. Of course, the value elements of your
venture – team, product, revenue – are the
means by which you advance to a new
investor class. So, ultimately it is all still
about building team and traction.
So far, in this series, we have covered
building a great founding team and, with this
article, the basics of capitalizing that team. In
the next piece, we will dig a bit deeper into
the structure of a venture capital (or angel)
financing scenario, including common deal
terms, pitfalls, and some tips for valuation
optimization. n
SAVE THE DATE
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June 1–6, 2014
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http://www.sid.org/
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Jenny Donelan
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33
ID Amelung p34-37_Layout 1 9/22/2013 2:47 PM Page 34
frontline technology
OLEDs for Professional Lighting Applications
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) already represent a strong market segment in display
applications such as mobile devices. In the lighting market, they are still in the beginning
phase. To achieve a relevant market segment, OLED technology has to compete in terms of
performance, cost, and other unique features against established light-source technologies.
by Jörg Amelung, Christian Kirchhof, Tino Göhler, and Michael Eritt
Application Requirements
To date, OLED lighting solutions exist mainly
Jörg Amelung, Christian Kirchhof, Tino
Göhler, and Michael Eritt are with Tridonic
Dresden GmbH & Co. KG in Dresden,
Germany. Jörg Amelung can be reached at
joerg.amelung@tridonic.com.
34
high
in art installations and decorative lighting.
These niche applications are tolerant of high
costs and low performance. Actual OLED
applications in high-end decorative luminaires
or art installations are possible because the
requirements for luminous flux or lighting
performance are low. To enter a wider range
of professional lighting applications, OLEDs
must improve in technical parameters and in
cost. Additionally, innovative integration concepts for large lighting areas are necessary.
Professional lighting describes the market
segment for B2B (business-to-business)
solutions, covering office, shop, hospitality,
industrial, architectural, and outdoor lighting
Residential
Volume
LED-BASED DISPLAYS are wellestablished for use in smartphones and tablets.
OLED TVs are still in the early stages but will
enter higher volume markets soon. In the
lighting field, however, OLEDs are still exotic.
To reach a larger lighting market segment,
OLEDs have to compete against traditional
lighting solutions and, additionally, fulfill
lighting requirements for dedicated applications. To achieve this, synergies between
displays and lighting architectures must be
accomplished.
In 2011, the world residential lighting
market was around €21 billion, which represents approximately 40% of the general lighting market.1 This number covers new fixture
installations, including the full value chain,
lighting-system control components, and
light-source replacements. The professional
market segment is €34 billion in total, which
is the other 60% of the market. Additionally,
the value per application in the professional
market is higher than in the residential
market; these factors make the professional
market rather attractive for OLED applications
(Fig. 1).
Professional
Decorative
low
O
Art
low
Cost level
high
Fig. 1: The cost/volume ratio for different
lighting applications shows that costs are high
and volumes are low in the niche areas of art
installations and decorative lighting.
0362-0972/5/2013-034$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
solutions. These application fields have many
individual application requirements, but, in
general, the applications can be summarized
as shown in Table 1.
OLEDs could in a near-to-middle time
frame cover only a part of these applications,
based on their parameter field, which can be
summarized as follows:
● Medium-to-low luminous flux due to
limited brightness level.
● Medium areas due to actual fabrication
limitation.
● High lighting quality based on a good
lighting mixture (CRI > 80–90).
● Medium-to-high cost aspect.
● Very good design aspect based on slim
format and homogenous lighting area.
Based on these criteria, the application
fields of hospitality, shop, and office are the
best candidates for OLED applications in the
near future.
Office-related solutions are the largest
market segment in general lighting; in 2011,
they represented €8 billion worldwide.1 This
market segment is very suitable for OLEDrelated lighting solutions because the applications are indoor, higher-cost related (especially
in Europe), and require high-quality lighting
generation.
Unfortunately, the largest applications
inside the office market are downlights and
recessed luminaires. Both applications are not
really suitable for OLED integration. Downlights require very high brightness levels and
luminous flux; recessed luminaires are mainly
Table 1: Requirements are compared for various professional applications.
Shop
Hospitality Industrial Architectural Outdoor
Luminous flux, Medium
Brightness
High
Lighting quality High
High
Main type of
light
Office
Area, Slot, Slot, Spot, Area, Slot
Spot,
Downlight Spot,
Downlight
Downlight
Area, Slot, Area, Spot
Downlight
Spot,
Downlight
Medium
High
Low
High
Area
Medium
Medium
Medium
High
High
High
Cost segment
[$/lm]
Medium
High
Design aspect
Low
High
Medium
Low
Medium
Low
Low
Low
Very low
Medium
Medium
Low
Medium
Low
cost driven and do not need a slim form factor
because in ceilings additional installations
such as air conditioning are required.
Based on the limited luminous flux of
OLEDs, potential applications for OLED
lighting currently involve those that are in
close proximity to the user. The most interesting applications are desk, wall-integrated,
pendant, and free-standing luminaires (Fig. 2).
There are two ways of implementing new
lighting technology for such applications: by
retrofitting elements or by designing new
luminaires. Retrofit solutions would require
OLED elements that replace in size and luminous flux traditional fluorescent tubes such as
T5, T8, or T-CL. Such retrofit solutions with
LEDs have already entered the marketplace.
Fig. 2: The following office-lighting applications are the most likely to be commercially viable for OLED at this time: wall luminaires (top left),
pendant luminaires (top right), light lines or slot lighting (bottom left), and free-standing luminaires (bottom right).
35
They are ideal because there is no need to
redesign the luminaire, which saves cost and
time.
For OLEDs, these kinds of retrofit solutions
will not work because of the form factors and
brightness levels of traditional fluorescent
solutions. New flat luminaire designs are the
best way to integrate OLEDs into applications. In Table 2, the relationship between
volume, price, and type of luminaire is shown.
OLED applications will be implemented first
into design-oriented luminaires and will
follow the route to mass volume by reducing
cost and improving performance.
The requirements in price and performance
for OLEDs rise dramatically for functional and
mass-volume luminaires because there OLEDs
will be in direct competition with LED solutions.
Even for this first stage of application, the
design-oriented luminaires, OLEDs will have
to fulfill some requirements that are commonly
restricted by the applications.
These requirements are:
● Luminous flux > 9000 lm/m² (> 3000
cd/m² if assuming lambertian emission).
● Color-temperature standards; 3000 and
4000K.
● Area sizes: 0.3 × 0.3 m or 0.6 × 0.6 m.
● Simple integration.
None of the OLEDs now in the marketplace
fulfil these requirements; in most cases, the
luminous emittance is too low or the color
temperature is lower than 3000K and/or the
sizes are too small.
One additional important target is the cost
aspect. Actual OLED solutions are about 100
times more expensive than LED-based ones,
so OLED process costs have to be dramatically reduced. OLED display fabrication is
well-positioned in the market, so there is the
question of which synergies could be used
between the display and lighting segment to
improve performance and reduce fabrication
costs.
With regard to OLED TVs, some of the
main parameters are close to those of OLED
lighting, so both industries use similar
approaches. Normally, the display architecture for the two is completely different based
on the required RGB pixel arrangement.
Nevertheless, there is an alternative color
arrangement in some displays that use white
with color filters, which offers certain advantages, especially for large-area displays.2 In
principle, this arrangement consists of a large
OLED lighting area integrated into an active36
Table 2: The relationship between
application and price/volume is
proportional.
matrix backplane. The fabrication synergies
are maximal in that arrangement, so similar
machine concepts could be used. The OLED
stacks in such color-by-white arrangements
are also similar; nevertheless, the white color
point and brightness level are different. Thus,
OLED displays and lighting fabrication technologies could enjoy synergies in the case of
fabrication technologies and OLED stack
architecture. This could make the market
entrance for OLED lighting easier, especially
in the professional sector.
Fig. 3: This OLED module system measures
99 × 99 mm per panel.
Highly Efficient OLED Modules
OLED modules represent an important step
toward achieving large-area lighting solutions
with accepted and required lumen packages.
OLED glass panels are not very easy to integrate. The thin-film electrodes on glass have
to be contacted in a good manner to avoid
voltage drops to the module. Additionally, the
glass itself cannot be handled easily, and an
additional optical out-coupling system has to
Fig. 4: Module efficacy is plotted vs. average luminance of the module.
be integrated. Based on the limited sizes
of OLEDs (up to 15 × 15 cm²), large areas of
OLED lighting have to be subdivided in
several OLED lighting plates.
OLED lighting modules represent an import
intermediate level for integration. Such
modules could be easily mounted to cover
large lighting areas via a mechanical support
system. Important aspects of these OLED
modules could be subdivided as follows:
●
●
●
●
Small contact areas to maximize the
OLED lighting area.
High-luminous-intensity homogeneity.
Minimal thickness.
Robust contact system.
To achieve a robust contact system, the
OLED electrode contacts are bound by a flexible contact spring to a PCB connection plate,
which results in a total contact resistance of
< 1 W for a 99 × 99-mm OLED module.
A potential OLED module system is shown
in Fig. 3. The module combines a large active
area (> 80% lighting area) with a slim form
factor (< 3 mm thickness) and a robust contact
system for use in large-area applications.
Based on very efficient OLED panels
(fabricated by LG Chem), the OLED module
system allows very efficient OLED lighting.
The modules achieve a luminous efficacy of over
50 lm/W at 3000 cd/m² (averaged luminance at
230 mA) and a total luminous flux of over 100 lm
for a 350-mA current, which results in a luminous emittance of over 12,000 lm/m² (Fig. 4).
Mirror OLED Module Solutions
Besides performance, it is important to provide new features or form factors to users to
earn new application scenarios. One interesting implementation for OLED modules inside
professional applications is the off-state
mirror surface. There are two solutions to
achieve an off-state mirror. In the first, the
out-coupling foil on top of the OLED is not
applied; in the other, an additional mirror is
used as secondary optics on top of the lightemitting surface.
An optical system with an additional mirror
plate achieves a highly efficient mirror-like
OLED in the off-state. In the on-state, the
optimized mirror allows a stable color coordinate at different angles, with only a low shift
of color compared to an OLED with no outcoupling or secondary optic system. The
appearance is uniform even at the edges of the
OLED module.
This solution also allows for a more efficient OLED module; the OLED efficacy is
still 34 lm/W at a luminous flux of 59 lm
(99 mm x 99 mm) based on an OLED panel
with initially 40 lm/W and a milky diffuse
surface (Fig. 5).
An innovative luminaire solution based on
such modules has been demonstrated by the
companies Selux and Art+Com. The luminaire Manta Rhei is a pendant type with individual dimming of 140 mirror-type OLED
modules and kinetic movement of the OLED
panels that is enabled by the bending of the
mounting metal sheet. Based on individual
dimming, the illuminance level remains constant during movement (Fig. 6).
The Future of OLED Lighting
To achieve a larger market segment, OLED’s
best near-time possibility is in fulfilling product requirements for professional lighting
solutions. High brightness and efficient OLED
solutions could be achieved by optimized
module solutions. Novel surface finishings
such as a high-quality off-state mirror surface
allow for new luminaire appearances, which
may accelerate the OLED market penetration,
although initially toward the high end. Last,
synergies between OLED solutions in displays
and lighting could generate advantages in
terms of fabrication costs and OLED stacks.
Such advantages could boost both industries.
Acknowledgment
Some of these OLED results were achieved
inside the BMBF-funded OLED project
SO-LIGHT (FKZ 13N10536).
Fig. 6: The Manta Rhei luminaire by Selux
and ART+COM consists of 140 mirror-type
modules. (Source: Selux.)
References
Lighting the way: Perspectives on the global
lighting market, 2nd ed. (McKinsey & Company, Inc., August 2012).
2
C-W. Han et. al., “55-inch FHD OLED TV
Employing New Tandem WOLEDs,” SID
Symposium Digest of Tech Papers 43, Issue 1,
279–281 (June 2012). n
1
SAVE THE DATE
Display Week 2014
Fig. 5: Module efficacy is shown vs. driving
current of the mirror-type OLED module.
June 1–6, 2014
37
ID Yamae p38-43_Layout 1 9/22/2013 7:37 PM Page 38
High-Performance White-OLED Devices for
Next-Generation Solid-State Lighting
The efficacy of white OLEDs has reached 100 lm/W with RGB-phosphorescent emitters and
light-extraction technologies. OLEDs have therefore already exceeded the efficacy of typical
lighting equipment with fluorescent lamps.
by Kazuyuki Yamae, Hiroya Tsuji, Varutt Kittichungchit, Nobuhiro Ide,
and Takuya Komoda
L
IGHTING represents almost 20% of
global electricity consumption. A savings
potential of more than 1000 TWh (terawatt
hours) per year by 2030 is possible if conventional inefficient lamps are replaced by highly
efficient solid-state lighting (SSL).1,2 The
total electricity consumption of the world was
approximately 18,000 TWh in 2010, according to Japan’s Agency of Natural Resources
and Energy (www.enecho.meti.go.jp/english/).
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a wellknown source of highly efficient solid-state
lighting (SSL), and LED equipment has gradually been replacing conventional lighting
such as that based on incandescent bulbs.
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are
another candidate for next-generation SSL
because they are compact, lightweight, highly
responsive, and highly flexible in terms of
design. Commericalized OLEDs have already
exceeded the efficiency of incandescent bulbs.
However, they have not yet surpassed LEDs.
The efficiency of OLEDs is mainly determined by three factors: internal quantum
efficiency (IQE), electrical efficiency (EE),
and light-extraction efficiency (LEE). First,
Kazuyuki Yamae, Hiroya Tsuji, Varutt
Kittichungchit, Nobuhiro Ide, and Takuya
Komoda are with Eco Solutions Company,
Panasonic Corp., Japan. K. Yamae can be
contacted at yamae.kazuyuki@jp.panasonic.com.
38
optimization of the carrier balance with
energy levels and the mobility of stacked layers for emission, transportation, injection, or
blockage is required to maximize IQE, especially for effective radiative hole–electron
recombination. According to spin statistics,
the hole–electron recombination yields singlet
and triplet excitons by a ratio of 1:3, respectively. It is well known that phosphorescent
OLEDs enable radiation from triplets and that
its IQE has already reached nearly 100%.3,4
EE is inversely proportional to the driving
voltage, which is controlled by charge injection and carrier transfer. High-mobility materials or electrical doping techniques have
enabled an extremely low driving voltage of
OLED devices that has come close to theoretical limits.5 However, restrictions are required
to achieve both low driving voltage and a long
lifetime because of the fundamental issue of
durability in organic materials. These architectures can also suffer from resistive losses
Fig. 1: A standard light-extraction model for OLED shows total internal reflection (TIR) at two
interfaces.
0362-0972/5/2013-038$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
induced by the relatively large currents
required by low driving voltages.
The largest potential of the aforementioned
three factors is in LEE. Only about 20% of
the total generated light can escape to the air
from conventional OLED devices, due to total
internal reflection (TIR) at the interfaces as
shown in Fig. 1 and explained by Snell’s law
as one of the limiting factors in LEE. Since
organic layers and glass substrates have
higher refractive indices than air, light that
reaches the outer boundaries of the device at
wide incident angles encounters total internal
reflection (TIR) and is trapped inside the
device instead of being able to escape. The
reflected light is then absorbed back into the
organic layers or electrodes.
Various optical structures with micro-sized
texture or nano-sized gratings fabricated on
the surface of the substrate are simple methods that can be used to improve LEE.6 How-
ever, these technologies are not able to extract
the remaining light confined in the transparent
electrode and organic layers – this trapped
light is called the waveguide mode.
Some internal light out-coupling structures
such as scattering layers or diffraction gratings
fabricated in the organic layers have been useful in reducing the waveguide mode and have
achieved better LEE.7-9 However, those scattering layers or gratings usually have rough
surfaces, which reduce reliability through current leakage or short circuits. A special high
refractive index (n ~ 1.8) substrate with
micro-patterned texture has achieved excellent
LEE because of the improved transmission
from thin layers to the substrate.10 However,
reliable high-refractiveindex glass (n ~ 1.8)
at low cost is not commercially available for
large-area substrates applicable to OLEDs.
In this article, we focus on the progress of
light-extraction technology using a Built-up
Fig. 2: This cross section of an OLED shows the structure of the built-up light-extraction
substrate (BLES).
Light Extraction Substrate (BLES)11,12 – a
technology developed by Panasonic engineering. Using this BLES, an efficacy of over
100 lm/W was achieved in combination with
developed white-phosphorescent OLED
devices. This measure of 100 lm/W is widely
recognized as the first destination for nextgeneration lighting because the efficacy
exceeds current typical lighting applications
using fluorescent lamps.
Built-Up Light-extraction Substrate
(BLES)
A cross section of a BLES structure with a
bottom-emitting OLED is shown in Fig. 2.
BLES comprises a transparent electrode, a
high-refractive-index (n = 1.77 at 550 nm)
micro-lens-array (MLA) structure made from
polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) film, and a
glass substrate for encapsulation. An air gap
exists between the MLA and the glass substrate.
The BLES was fabricated as follows: A
transparent electrode was previously deposited
on one surface of PEN film. MLA was fabricated onto the opposite side of the film. This
film was then laminated to a glass substrate
with the MLA side facing the glass. The
micro-patterned texture of the MLA was
attached to the glass substrate, and the air gap
naturally occurred between the textures and
the glass. This assembly was then vacuumdried at 80°C for at least 15 minutes in order
to remove the residual water and gases before
use. After the deposition of the OLED device
onto the film on the top side, electrodes on the
film were connected to the bus electrodes on
the glass substrate with a conductive paste.
The film and deposited organic device were
completely encapsulated by a cavity glass.
Due to the high-refractive-index structure,
light emitted from the organic layers propagates into the PEN and MLA layers without
TIR. Owing to the existence of the air gap
between the out-coupling texture and glass
substrate, extracted light from the MLA was
able to transmit into the glass substrate without TIR, and an excellent LEE was expected.
BLES has other merits in addition to the
enhancement of light-extraction efficiency.
First, the smooth surface of the film is applicable to a large-area OLED device. Second, the
rigid protection from water vapor, reactive
gases, or other physical damages by the glass
substrate enables better durability of the OLED
device on the film and micro-textures. Plus, the
substrate is appropriate for commercial use
39
because each component is relatively inexpensive compared to high-refractive-index glass.
Optical Design for BLES
The propagating light in BLES is divided into
transmitted diffraction and reflected diffraction at the interface of the MLA and the air
gap. Transmitted diffraction is extracted from
the air without TIR at the glass surfaces as
described previously. Reflected diffraction is
extracted through the multiple reflections in
OLED and BLES, or absorbed. Thus, BLES
has the potential to realize excellent LEE
while suppressing internal absorption since
TIR is almost eliminated. In a conventional
structure, the waveguide, substrate, and air
modes are 50%, 30%, and 20%, respectively.
If we use a high-refractive-index substrate
such as PEN, the waveguide mode is transferred to the substrate mode and the substrate
and air modes are 80% and 20%, respectively.
BLES enables substrate mode to air mode. If
we can achieve a no-absorption device, 100%
of light is extracted. On the other hand, a
conventional structure can achieve only 50%,
since the waveguide mode is retained in
organic layers and cannot be extracted
whether absorption is high or low.
The influence of internal absorption to LEE
in BLES was fully investigated to obtain
higher LEE. To begin with, the transparency
of BLES was examined. The measurement
results of reflectance and transmittance of
BLES are shown in Fig. 3. To avoid the noise
Fig. 3: Reflectance and transmittance measurements for BLES.
caused by scattering, the MLA was replaced
by a flat layer with an equivalent thickness of
its height (about 5 µm) as shown in Fig. 3.
No absorption was observed in BLES since
the summation of reflectance and transmittance was almost 100% in the region of a
visible wavelength. Spectral ripples by optical interference were not observed as refractive indices of PEN film and high-n material
for MLA was similar.
On the premise that no-absorption channel
is in the BLES, the diffraction at MLA and
internal absorption in the OLED became the
primary focus of investigation. In this study,
the LEE of the OLED with a high-refractiveindex extraction layer was simulated by a
calculation model combined with rigorous
coupled wave analysis (RCWA) and raytracing.13 The calculated model is shown in
Fig. 4. Model A was almost equivalent
to BLES, which was composed of a highrefractive-index substrate (n = 1.78) and MLA
(n = 1.78). The glass substrate under the
MLA was removed to simplify the calculation
because its absorption and influence on LEE
did not need to be taken into consideration in
this case. Model B was a conventional lightextraction structure composed of typical
external out-coupling MLA film (n = 1.52)
that had the same texture as Model A with a
glass substrate (n = 1.52).
The simulation algorithm is described as
follows. First, the incident light I1(θi,φi) can be
calculated by using a Fresnel coefficient in the
OLED multilayers. θi and φi are the incident
and azimuthal angles, respectively. The average value of p and s polarizations is applied to
simplify the calculation. The total radiation
for the first incidence is expressed by
(1)
The integral numbers of m,n are diffraction
orders of the x and y directions. Tm,n(θi,φi)
is the transmittance for (m,n) calculated by
using RCWA. On the other hand, the reflection for each direction at the first incidence
can be given by a function of the reflection
angles (θr,φr) as
(2)
Fig. 4: Two different optical simulation models (A and B) were used for BLES.
40
Rm,n(θr,φr) is the reflectance for (m,n) calculated by using RCWA. Vm,n is a rewrite of
sinθi as a function of θr,φr, and |Jr,m,n| is the
Jacobian determinant ς(θr,φr)/ς(θr,φr). The
second incidence is obtained from the reflectance
Ro(θr,φr), which is calculated by using the
Fresnel coefficient matrix for the OLED multilayers and ξ1(θr,φr), which is calculated by
using Eq. (2). θr,φr are regarded as the second
incident angles because the incident angle of
light is not converted at the reflective electrode:
I2(θr,φr) = Ro(θr,φr)ξ1(θr,φr)
(3)
tum efficiency has poor injection and transport properties.14,15 Thus, we assumed that
the blue-phosphorescent emitting layer was
the main component of high voltage. In this
study, the interfacial injection barrier between
the electron-transport layer and the bluephosphorescent emissive layer was examined.
Various electron-transport materials with
different energy levels were investigated, and
the driving voltage was reduced without being
a crucial issue to the quantum efficiency and
lifetime. Meanwhile, the injection of holes
into the blue-phosphorescent emissive layer
was also investigated. The use of the carrierbalancing design resulted in a successful
decrease in driving voltage.
Therefore, the radiation for the second incidence η2 is determined by substituting
Eq. (3) into Eq. (1). The radiation of each
incidence for the multiple reflection of light
can be determined in the same manner
because its angle is not converted in the
OLED and electrodes. Consequently, the
extraction efficiency η is described as the sum
of all radiation from the micro-structure:
(4)
The calculated result is shown in Fig. 5.
It is indicated that the influence of internal
absorption was more dominant in Model A
with its high-refractive-index substrate than
in Model B with its low-refractive-index
substrate. The high-refractive-index substrate
removed the waveguide mode, which was
confined within the organic layers. Thus, all
light from the emitting layer could pass through
the optical pass with multiple reflections as
described. Therefore, the LEE was more strongly
influenced by the internal absorption in the
OLED with a higher-refractive-index substrate.
Then, the high-absorption layers were
carefully specified and replaced by lowerabsorption materials. A comparison of lightextraction structures (BLES and conventional
outcoupling film) with different absorption
devices is shown in Fig. 6. The optical
enhancement of the external quantum efficiency (EQE), which is in proportion to LEE,
was obviously improved with lower absorption. The trend was more dominant in the
BLES than with the the conventional structure
with external out-coupling film.
Fig. 5: The optical simulation result of LEE for both Models A and B.
Performance of the Two-Unit
Phosphorescent White OLED
The improvement of EE was also studied due
to the different driving voltages among
devices and because the theoretical energy
gap was still large. Typically, the bluephosphorescent host that enables high quan-
Fig. 6: Optical enhancement with lower absorption was better for BLES than for conventional
out-coupling film.
41
The authors developed two-unit allphosphorescent white-OLED devices that
were optimized for maximized IQE and lifetime, minimized driving voltage, and proper
color coordinates. The low-absorption materials, specific light-distribution design, and
voltage-reduction technologies as previously
mentioned were also applied. The performance of fabricated devices with 1-cm2 pixels is
shown in Table 1. The luminance dependence
on efficacy at Device A is shown in Fig. 7.
Device A showed an extremely high efficacy
of 114 lm/W and a quite long half-decay lifetime of over 100,000 hours. It also showed
125 lm/W at 100 cd/m2 and 102 lm/W at 3000
cd/m2. Over 100 lm/W was maintained up to
a high luminance of about 4000 cd/m2. LEE
was dramatically improved due to the lowabsorption materials and specific distribution
pattern with BLES. This indicated that almost
half of the light was extracted from the emitting layer because an EQE of about 100% was
achieved in the two-unit device. The EE was
also improved, and the voltage was reduced
by about 0.6 V compared to that of Device C.
Next, a large-area OLED device based on
Device A was fabricated. The emission area
was 25 cm2. The uniform emission without
dark spots and visible defects was realized, as
shown in Fig. 8. The properties of this panel
are shown in Fig. 9. A quite high efficacy of
110 lm/W and a long lifetime of 100,000
hours at 1000 cd/m2 were also obtained for
this OLED panel. The efficacy of the panel
decreased by about 3% from the pixel (1 cm2)
Table 1: The performance of fabricated all-phosphorescent OLED
devices A, B, and C (1-cm2 pixel) is compared.
All phosphorescent white OLED
Device A
Device B
Device C
Specific distribution pattern
optimized
installed
—
Low absorption materials
Lower voltage technologies
Luminance
Efficacy
External quantum efficiency
(estimated LEE)
Driving voltage
Estimated lifetime (LT50)
CRI
Color coordinates
Color temperatures
optimized
installed
installed
installed
—
1,000 cd/m
1,000 cd/m
1,000 cd/m2
99%
(>49%)
84%
(>42%)
81%
(>41%)
>30,000 h
>100,000 h
114 lm/W
2
5.5 V
>100,000 h
101 lm/W
2
5.9 V
87 lm/W
6.1 V
80
86
82
2,550 K
3,200 K
2,800 K
(0.48, 0.43)
because the voltage of the panel slightly
increased with a voltage drop in the circuit or
thermal influence. Color coordinates were in
the region of the white color.
Future Prospects for OLED Lighting
Figure 10 shows the current-efficacy
prospects for OLED lighting. The authors’
immediate target in terms of efficacy is
130 lm/W by the end of this year (2013), a
target set by the New Energy and Industrial
Fig. 7: Luminance depends on efficacy (shown for Device A from Table 1).
42
optimized
(0.44, 0.44)
(0.46, 0.42)
Development Organization (NEDO) at
www.nedo.go.jp/english/.
The arrival of an over 100-lm/W OLED
lighting device would be a turning point for
entering the general lighting market. It is
necessary to develop a light-extraction technology for the waveguide mode such as BLES
for the realization of an over 100-lm/W OLED
lighting panel. Particular effort should be
focused on issues such as reliability, productivity, and cost competitiveness in order for
OLED lighting to reach the marketplace for
signage, decorative illumination, office and
industrial use, and indoor and outdoor lighting. Those development activities are also
now ongoing in parallel.
Fig. 8: A large OLED panel (25 cm2) was
fabricated based on Device A.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NEDO as
“Fundamental Technology Development of
Next Generation Lighting of High-efficiency
and High-Quality” project started in March
2010. We also thank Idemitsu Kosan Co.,
Ltd., as a member of the project, and also
Universal Display Corp. and Nippon Steel &
Sumkin Chemical Co., Ltd., for their kind
provisions of high-performance materials.
References
“25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations,” International Energy Agency (2011).
2
“Monthly Electricity Statistics,” International
Energy Agency (2013).
3
C. Adachi, M. A. Baldo, M. E. Thompson, and
S. R. Forrest, “Nearly 100 % internal phosphorescence efficiency in an organic light-emitting device,” J. Appl. Phys. 90, 5048 (2001).
4
M. A. Baldo, D. F. O’Brien, Y. You,
A. Shoustikov, S. Sibley, M. E. Thompson,
and S. R. Forrest, “Highly efficient phosphorescent emission from organic electroluminescent devices,” Nature 395, 151 (1998).
5
R. Meerheim, K. Walzer, G. He, M. Pfeiffer,
and K. Leo, “Highly efficient organic light
emitting diodes (OLED) for displays and
lighting,” Proc. SPIE 6192, 61920P/1 (2006).
6
T. Komoda, H. Tsuji, N. Ito, T. Nishimori,
and N. Ide, “High-Quality White OLEDs and
Resource Saving Fabrication Processes for
Lighting Application,” SID Symposium Digest
Tech. Papers, 993 (2010).
7
Y. Sun and S. R. Forrest, “Enhanced light
out-coupling of organic light-emitting devices
using embedded low-index grids,” Nature
Photonics 2, 483 (2008).
8
J.-H. Jang, M.-C. Oh, T.-H. Yoon, and
J. C. Kim, “Polymer grating imbedded
organic light emitting diodes with improved
out-coupling efficiency,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 97,
123302 (2010).
9
B.Riedel, J. Hauss, U. Geyer, J. Guetlein,
U. Lemmer, and M. Gerken, ”Enhancing outcoupling efficiency of indium-tin-oxide-free
organic light-emitting-diodes via nanostructured high index layers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 96,
243302 (2010).
10
S. Reineke, F. Lindner, G. Schwartz,
N. Seidler, K. Walzer, B. Lüssem, and K. Leo,
“White organic light-emitting diodes with
fluorescent tube efficiency,” Nature 459, 234
(2009).
11
T. Komoda, K. Yamae, V. Kittichungchit, H.
Tsuji, and N. Ide, “Extremely High Perform1
Fig. 9: The performance of the fabricated OLED panel (25 cm2).
Fig. 10: Current-efficacy prospects for OLED lighting based on the outlook of luminaire
efficiency from Ref. 16.
ance White OLEDs for Lighting,” SID
Symposium Digest Tech. Papers, 610 (2012).
12
K. Yamae, H. Tsuji, V. Kittichungchit,
Y. Matsuhisa, S. Hayashi, N. Ide, and
T. Komoda, “High-Efficiency OLEDs with
Built-up Outcoupling Substrate,” SID Symposium Digest Tech. Papers, 694 (2012).
13
H. Kikuta, S. Hino, and A. Maruyama,
“Estimation method for the light extraction
efficiency of light-emitting elements with a
rigorous grating diffraction theory,” J. Opt.
Soc. Am. A. 23, 1207 (2006).
14
N. Chopra, J. Lee, Y. Zheng, S-H Eom,
J. Xue, and F. So, “High efficiency blue
phosphorescent organic light-emitting
device,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 143307 (2008).
15
N. Seidler, S. Reineke, K. Walzer,
B. Lussem, A. Tomkeviciene, J. V. Grazulevicius, and K. Leo, “Influence of the hole blocking layer on blue phosphorescent organic
light-emitting devices using 3,6-di(9-carbazolyl)-9-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole as host
material,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 093304
(2010).
16
“Solid-State Lighting Research and Development Multi-Year Program Plan,” U.S.
Department of Energy (2013). n
43
ID Behringer p44-48_Layout 1 9/22/2013 3:04 PM Page 44
New Milestones for LED Lighting
Thin-film technology has enabled a new generation of high-brightness LEDs.
by Martin Behringer
M
OST people think about solid-state
lighting in terms of white light – for street
lights, vehicle headlights, or subway-station
lighting. Of course, we do not live in a black
and white world, and our colorful world could
benefit from illumination by longer wavelength light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In fact,
scientists have pursued this line of research
for five decades, as depicted in Fig. 1. While
the first LEDs were fairly simple pn-junction
devices, they were quite complicated for their
time. Today’s chips are more sophisticated, as
a result of several difficulties scientists had to
overcome during development.
First, the conversion efficiency was fairly
poor due to the low quality of the crystals
themselves. Impurities and lattice defects made
the conversion of electrical energy in light
(photons) inefficient. Then, most of the light
got absorbed again before it left the LED die.
Absorption took place most of the time in the
layers themselves, more severely in the substrate and also at the metal contacts. And
while the first LEDs were made from InGaAlP
(indium gallium aluminum phosphide) and
AlGaAs (aluminum gallium arsenide) in the
range between orange and infrared, today’s
LEDs use additional materials and reach into
the UV range of the light spectrum. Packaging
concepts and designs also matured dramatically,
in parallel with the LED dies. While the first
LED devices were only slighty brighter than a
glowing candle, LED systems now are bright
enough for headlamps in cars and even trains.
Today, many applications require yellow,
red, or hyper-red illumination. Such applicaMartin Behringer is with Siemens HL and
Osram Opto Semiconductors. He can be
reached at Martin.Behringer@osram-os.com.
44
tions include projectors, color mixing for
warm white illumination, hyper-red illumination coupled with blue light for greenhouses
(as shown in Fig. 2), and also infrared illumination with high brightness for closed-circuit
TV, adaptive cruise control for cars, or light
curtains (door detectors) in elevators.
After more than 12 years of efforts in thinfilm technology, Osram Opto Semiconductors
recently achieved a significant technological
breakthrough: a red LED at 200 lm/W at a
dominant wavelength of about 615 nm. For
red light, 200 lm/W is quite challenging, as
the theoretical limit for 615 nm with 100%
efficiency is about 300 lm/W. So, 200 lm/W
is coming fairly close.
Currently, two companies claim to have
surpassed 200 lm/W – both in a laboratory
setting at specific current densities. To place
these developments in context, the balance of
this article briefly recounts the history of
colored-LED development.
How LED Lighting Works
In solid-state lighting devices, the light is
generated in the semiconductor crystal. Here,
the electrical energy is converted into photons, and, in this crystal, Osram introduced
improvements to make the entire system more
efficient. To get the light out of a light package, the barrier of total internal reflection
(TIR) at the crystal–die boundaries has to be
q
Fig. 1: Brightness development for red, yellow, green, and blue LEDs is shown for the last 50
years.1
0362-0972/5/2013-044$1.00 + .00 © SID 2013
overcome. As the light is reflected back into
the die, it is incident to the surface of the die
with an angle larger than a specific value.
There are two ways to help emit the light.
The first is to continuously change the angle
of the light so if it is reflected once; the direction will be changed and it can escape in the
next run. Changing the direction of the light
can be done by surface roughening or by
internal absorption and re-emission. The
other way is to reduce the loss mechanism
(equal to absorption without re-emission of
light with the same wavelength) as far as possible. This gives the light more opportunities
to leave the die before it is lost.
Colored light can be generated either
directly (by generating the desired color
through direct emission) or by conversion
from one emission spectrum to another. In the
first case, typically, a medium is excited electrically and emits photons in a specific wavelength. In the second scenario, a photon is
emitted, then that photon is absorbed in a
medium, and then another photon of a second,
longer wavelength is emitted.
LEDs made from InGaAlP can directly and
efficiently generate light for the wavelength
range from 560 nm to about 660 nm.
The internal efficiency of a metal organic
vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) LED makes it
the most commonly used crystal growth technology in the LED industry today. Efficiency
(a)
of refraction of InGaAlP LEDs, only 4% of
the generated light can leave the chip directly
to be used for illumination; the remaining
96% is either reabsorbed by the material or
reflected at the chip/air interface and eventually absorbed into the chip. Encapsulation in
silicon or resin reduces the disadvantage of
internal reflection. But, as in InGaAlP, it has
a very high index of refraction of about 3.4
and because there is no encapsulant that
comes close to this value, light out-coupling
remains a problem.
The Development of Thin-film
Technology
Fig. 2: LEDs are now employed for a wide
variety of applications, from solid-state lighting to projectors to industrial applications.
Here, multiple monochromatic LEDs are
combined in a horticultural lighting system.
has increased to more than 90% in the longer
wavelength range. But due to the high index
Thin-film technology was invented by the
lighting industry to increase efficiency and
reduce light loss. (Many companies worked
on this technology, and many now offer thinfilm devices, but Osram was one of the first to
commercialize it, winning a German Future
Prize for its technological efforts.) In thinfilm LEDs, the light is also generated in a
quantum-well structure. In contrast to conventional LEDs, the growth substrate is
removed and the active epilayers are bonded
onto a carrier, which can be germanium,
silicon, or another material that matches the
requirements for this carrier. A highly reflecting mirror can be deposited in between the
epilayer and the carrier, which prevents the
light from being absorbed in the substrate. In
(b)
Fig. 3: A schematic sketch of a conventional LED is shown on an absorbing substrate (a) next to a thin-film LED with a metal mirror between the
active epilayer and carrier (b).
45
addition, the active epilayers can be so thin
that the light is absorbed differently from
before, when thick layers were required to
extract light efficiently. Normally, the surface
is roughened to enhance light extraction or
microprisms are included to increase efficiency (see Fig. 3).
In Figs. 3(a) and 3(b), the blue line shows
that the current is directed away from the
bond pad to avoid shadowing. The red arrows
depict the light path. The light, which is
initially emitted toward the substrate, is
reflected by the underlying mirror and
redirected toward the chip surface where it
can then leave the semiconductor die.
Figure 4 highlights the historic efficiency
of red LEDs (dominant wavelength, 615 nm).
As the triangles and diamonds demonstrate,
conventional LEDs reached a peak efficiency
of approximately 30 lm/W.
Beginning in 1998, Siemens/Osram began
research to develop thin-film LEDs for highbrightness emission. Initially, a number of
difficulties arose. Perhaps the biggest problem was transferring the thin semiconductor
layer (~ 5 µm, which is about 1/10 of the
thickness of a human hair) to a carrier in a
large area (5 µm / 100 mm = an aspect ratio of
20,000). Because this layer is very fragile and
requires a high yield for an economically
meaningful concept, about 10 years transpired
between the first publication of the idea in
1993 and Osram’s first commercial ThinFilm
LED in 2003. Regardless of this and other
thin film problems, it quickly became obvious
that by using thin-film technology, higher
brightness can be obtained (see the triangles
in Fig. 4). By 2010, levels of approximately
140 lm/W were reached.
Some advantages of thin-film LEDs
include:
●
●
46
Scalability: In theory, all chip sizes can
be made similarly, and, in turn, possess
similar characteristics and performance,
according to their size.
Surface emitters have Lambertian beam
patterns, and thus make it possible to
combine many chips side by side without
changing the beam pattern. Also, a
Lambertian beam pattern means that the
LED seems to have the same brightness
from all viewing angles, and a chip with
this profile is suitable for both reflector
and focusing optics.
Fig. 4: The historic efficiency of red LED brightness is shown by black diamonds indicating
volume emitters on an absorbing GaAs (gallium arsenide) substrate. Red points indicate
thin-film LEDs since 1999.
●
●
High efficiency.
Cost-efficient design and manufacturing
processes (based on lm/$).
During the last few years, further investigations into loss mechanisms within the
devices have not only improved efficiency,
but also reduced cost and increased reliability.
An analysis of different materials and semiconductor compositions used within the diode
for electrical conductivity and optical transmission helped in the replacement of absorbing layers with non-absorbing layers of
similar or even better functionality.
Figure 5 depicts the current curve and
efficiency for a 1-mm² die mounted into a
laboratory package, optimized for efficient
out-coupling of its generated light.
In Fig. 5(a), the light output for currents up
to 350 mA is shown. A linear curve indicates
efficient light generation over a wide current
range. In Fig. 5(b), the efficiencies are given.
The orange curve depicts the efficacy in
lm/W, while the black curve provides wallplug efficiency.
Both curves show a distinct maximum at
about 50 mA, with approximately 201 lm/W
and 61%, respectively. At 350 mA, the values
reduce to 168 lm/W and 52%. The explanation for this decline can be found in the red
curve, which shows the external quantum
efficiency. It shows a very broad maximum,
and the value is almost unchanged between 50
and 350 mA and between 58% and 59%. The
decline in efficacy and wall-plug efficiency
must therefore be attributed to an increase in
operating voltage due to still-existing ohmic
resistances within the die. The high lm/W
values were reached with a red die, which
emits at a dominant wavelength of about
609 nm at room temperature. For longer
wavelengths, eye sensitivity lessens and,
therefore, similarly high lm/W values are
harder to realize. On the other hand, high
wall-plug efficiency values are easier to realize with longer wavelengths. Therefore, the
high value of 61% is quite remarkable.
These improvements were made possible in
the following ways:
●
●
By reducing the absorption of the layers
as much as feasible, it is possible to
extract more light, even if it travels 10
times through the die before escaping the
semiconductor.
ous generation and about 10–30% for a packaged die in an LED. This is quite significant.
With this kind of increase, new and more
numerous applications can be addressed. An
already widespread application is the combi-
nation of highly efficient – but aesthetically
unpleasant – cold white with amber or red,
which changes the color temperature to a
more visually pleasant and high-quality white.
As a result, both higher overall efficiency
This was accomplished, in part, by
increasing the bandgap and, in part, by
adjusting the doping. To avoid highohmic resistances at these high operating
voltages, increasing thickness improved
the conductivity of the layers. The contact design was optimized to keep the
operating voltage low. Figure 6 shows a
1-mm² die. The dense arrangement of
these metals’ current paths enables strong
electrical performance despite adjusted
doping levels.
Finally, these improvements resulted in a
very-broad process window, which allows for
high yield and, therefore, lower overall cost.
This new technology was applied to chip
sizes of varying lengths: 250 µm, 300 µm,
500 µm, 750 µm, and 1 mm. A 150 µm and a
2-mm² die followed in 2012. The dominant
wavelength range is from 590 to 645 nm; 560
nm and infrared range followed in 2012 and
2013, respectively.
As mentioned above, maximum efficacy is
reached at about 610 nm, while wall-plug
efficiency is highest at a wavelength of 645 nm.
Figure 7 depicts the characteristics for a
1-mm² die at a dominant wavelength of 645 nm
(l = 660 nm peak) in the same laboratory
package as used for the 615-nm emitting chip.
The output power over current and the wallplug efficiency are shown.
The output power rises linearly with current
and reaches about 437 mW at 350 mA (at
about 2.1 V). The wall-plug efficiency
reaches about 59% at 350 mA and is above
70% between 5 and 60 mA. Due to reduced
eye sensitivity (photopic curve), the maximum
output at 350 mA is only 21 lm. Lifetime
depends on operating conditions such as
current and temperature. The entire LED
community is continuously working to
improve the reliability of these devices.
With the new generation of thin-film dies,
however, output power could be increased by
30–50% for a bare die compared to the previ-
(a)
(b)
Fig. 5: (a) The light-current curve and (b) the efficiency/efficacy over the current of a 1-mm²
LED in a laboratory package .
47
Fig. 6: Shown is the illumination pattern of a
1-mm² die from the latest thin-film generation.
and good color rendering can be achieved
simultaneously.
Meanwhile, projection and signaling applications absolutely require high-efficiency red
light and will doubtlessly profit from these
breakthroughs. As far as mobile applications
are concerned, either more power or longer
battery life will provide tremendous customer
benefits. For industrial applications, lower
energy consumption will reduce operating
costs and brighter devices will minimize
initial installation expenses.
In this context, it is clear that improvement
in 660-nm LEDs will also have a positive impact
on LED-illuminated greenhouses. With such
high efficiency, energy costs can be reduced
by almost half compared with conventional
lighting; furthermore, LED cooling is made
easier. For example, when comparing a light
with 40% efficiency to the above-mentioned
record values, it is realistically possible to
generate 75% more light with the same
amount of electrical energy and up to 250%
more light at the same amount of waste heat.
Due to the improved performance of the
chips themselves, package and luminaire
designers are emboldened to design bigger
and higher-powered packages and lamps that
are driven at higher operating currents. While
the first LEDs were for the mA range, today
often several amperes are run through the die.
Even though efficiency has been greatly
improved, these higher operating conditions
still require good thermal management, due to
higher total load. Thus, modern LEDs and
luminaires must provide low-ohmic resistance
in terms of electrical supply; they must efficiently remove the heat with low-temperature
increase, and they must also guarantee efficient light out-coupling and beam shaping to
fulfil needs for modern light sources.
What Comes Next?
Considering 60% efficiency, it is clear that
incremental brightness improvements will be
harder to realize as we approach the ideal of
100%. With that said, other parameters con-
tinue to require improvement. In particular,
companies will want to see better production
and process values.
Also important will be improvements in
high-current and high-temperature operation.
Certain devices are commonly characterized
at room temperature, while approximately
80–100°C is a more realistic operating condition. Therefore, work is being done to optimize output power at these temperatures, as
well as reducing the shift in operating parameters when changing the temperature.
Last but not least, light out-coupling
remains a constantly evolving challenge. On
the package level as well as on the bare die,
there is ongoing research dedicated to obtaining every photon that is generated out of the
die. Certainly, out-coupling in bare die configurations offers a wide range of possible
improvements.
To summarize, since 1998, thin film has
become a preferred solution for generating
high-brightness LEDs. It was recently determined how to reduce optical and electrical
loss mechanisms to realize a maximum efficacy output of 200 lm/W. This enables farbroader LED use in many applications, which
will increase lighting quality considerably.
References
1
Source: Elsevier/Academic Press. This
image was published in M. George Craford,
“High Brightness Light Emitting Diodes,
Semiconductors and Semimetals,” Overview
of Device Issues in High Brightness Light
Emitting Diodes (Elsevier/Academic Press,
1997), p. 48. n
VISIT
INFORMATION
DISPLAY ON-LINE
Fig. 7: Light output and wall-plug efficiency are demonstrated over the operating current for a
1-mm² die emitting at 660-nm peak.
48
For daily display
industry news
ID SID News Issue5 p49_Layout 1 9/22/2013 3:13 PM Page 49
SOCIETY FOR
INFORMATION
DISPLAY
NEWS
Display Week 2014 Symposium
to Feature OLED TV, Wearable
Displays, 3D, and Lighting
The Society for Information Display has
issued a call for papers to be presented at the
2014 Display Week Symposium. SID’s
annual Display Week is the premier event
for the global display industry. This year’s
symposium will feature presentations on
every aspect of display technology, but
submissions on the following special topics
are particularly encouraged: OLED TV,
Wearable Displays, 3D, and Lighting. This
year’s event takes place June 1–6, 2014, in
San Diego.
For the OLED-TV special topic, submissions on all advanced OLED-TV technologies
are encouraged, including novel device structures, backplane technologies, manufacturing
processes, deposition techniques, mask fabri-
cation, encapsulation, driving methods, and
next-generation applications.
The special topic on Wearable Displays will
cover the emerging development of wearable
display products, applications, and technologies.
This is one of the fastest growing areas in both
consumer products and technological development. Paper topics include wearable applications, near-to-eye systems, textile displays,
and more.
The 3D symposium sessions will encompass display technologies for enabling depth
perception in viewers, applications for 3D
displays, 3D content generation, measurement
and characterization of 3D systems, and
human factors.
Last but not least, the special topic on
Lighting will focus on advances in the LED
and OLED industries. Submissions on all
aspects of solid-state lighting are encouraged,
including novel lighting systems, lighting
measurement, backlighting, optical systems,
and more.
Work in the new fields listed above may
also relate to the following general symposium topics: Active-Matrix Displays, Applied
Vision/Human Factors, Display Applications,
Display Electronics, Display Manufacturing,
Display Measurements, Display Systems,
Emissive Displays, e-Paper and Flexible
Displays, Liquid-Crystal and Other NonEmissive Displays, OLEDs, Projection, and
Touch and Interactivity.
The Society for Information Display
encourages the submission of original papers
on all aspects of the research, engineering,
application, evaluation, and utilization of
displays. Paper submissions are welcomed
for any of the general symposium or specific
topical sessions.
For information about submitting an abstract
(due Dec 2, 2013), see “First Call for Papers”
on www.sid.org.
— Jenny Donelan
JO IN S ID
development of:
equipment
their profession.
http://www.sid.org/
Membership.aspx
Display Week 2014
SID International Symposium, Seminar & Exhibition
June 1–6, 2014
www.displayweek.org
49
ID Guest Editorial Issue5 p4,50_Layout 1 9/22/2013 4:56 PM Page 50
guest editorial
continued from page 4
The biggest piece missing in the puzzle so
far is the commitment to larger investments in
manufacturing volume. This is similar to the
situation that AMOLED display makers were
in some years ago before Samsung led the
way.
In contrast to AMOLED displays, however,
production lines for lighting modules are far
less complex and cost intensive. So we will
not have a limited amount of companies dominating the market, but rather a multitude of
companies as active producers. With a 40%
annual reduction expectation, OLED lighting
prices should reach a level where functional
rather than decorative uses will become viable
– probably in the next 2–3 years. Now might
be the right time to invest in those missing
additional manufacturing lines…. n
Sven Murano is Vice President of Product
Management for Novaled AG in Dresden,
Germany. He can be reached at sven.murano
@novaled.com.
industry news
Shanghai AVIC and NLT Form
New Company
Display Week 2014
SID International Symposium, Seminar & Exhibition
June 1–6, 2014
www.displayweek.org
50
If you’ve been wondering when the folks
involved in Renesas/NEC/NLT/Tianma would
change company names again, wonder no
longer: Shanghai AVIC Optoelectronics Co.,
Ltd., and NLT Technologies, Ltd., have
announced the official launch (currently
scheduled for November 1, 2013) of a new
joint venture, Tianma NLT America, Inc. The
new company has been created to provide
AMLCD solutions specifically for the Americas industrial market. It will have responsibility for sales, marketing, and engineering
support of the NLT/Tianma product line as
well as management responsibility of the
distribution channel for Tianma AMLCD
products in the Americas. (These are the
responsibilities currently managed by
Renesas Electronics America’s Display
Business Unit. n
ID Editorial Issue5 p2,51_Layout 1 9/22/2013 1:21 PM Page 51
editorial
industry expert Ken Werner set about to
chronicle it all for us in his review article on
3-D displays.
I sometimes wonder whether those in the
media create hype or simply report it. We can
probably agree that the right answer is a mixture of both. In the case of OLED TVs, the
promise of the technology certainly created
enough buzz and interest to keep everyone
excited in Vancouver. The reality did not
disappoint, with another year of great demonstrations from Samsung and LG showing the
future of OLED technology. Samsung had
OLED displays at Display Week but no big
OLED TVs this year. Only LG had them.
But TV was just a small part of the story, as
you will realize when you read the review
from our reporters Sven Murano and Anke
Lemke. You may also note that since the
exhibitions in May, both Samsung and LG
have released 55-in. curved OLED TVs to the
consumer marketplace, as reported this month
in our Industry News section.
Although not as headline grabbing as
OLED and 3-D displays, flexible displays
continue to evolve as well and in many cases
hold promise for new and highly innovative
products to emerge. E Ink is the name everyone knows, and for good reason, but if you
look beyond this iconic brand, as author Jason
Heikenfeld did, you will find a rich landscape
of innovations and recent industry developments. Fortunately, Jason did his homework
and scoured the show to bring us all the highlights in his review article on flexible displays
and e-paper technologies.
In addition to looking back, we’re looking
forward this month to the future of solid-state
lighting with a pair of feature articles brought
to us by guest editor Sven Murano from
Novaled AG. Sven worked very hard on this
part of the issue and rightly deserves our
thanks. Highly complementary to each other,
these Frontline Technology articles provide a
strong overview of the market needs and
opportunities for OLEDs as well as some
concrete results in achieving record-setting
light-output efficiencies. I encourage you to
read Sven’s guest editorial first. “OLED
Lighting Edges Closer to Commercial Reality”
offers a more complete introduction to both
features.
One observation Sven makes in his column
is how competition from inorganic LEDs in
the lighting market is strong, with this technology demonstrating increasing performance
levels and decreasing costs. Providing perspective from that camp this month is our
third Frontline Technology feature, “New
Milestones for LED Lighting” by author
Martin Behringer from Osram. He discusses
both the historical evolution of LED technology and the latest advances of his team in
achieving industry-leading performance in
color and light-extraction efficiency with
thin-film devices.
Last but not least, we welcome back author
and SID EC member Helge Seetzen, who contributed the second of his series of articles
focused on successful strategies for creating,
funding, and growing new technology ventures. This month, in “Raising Capital for
Technology Ventures,” Helge explains the
next steps to raising capital after you have
built the necessary foundation in your startup
venture. It’s not as easy as it may look from
the sidelines and I think you can avoid a number of setbacks by learning from Helge and
the experiences of his team. This series will
continue for several more months and I’m
already excited about next month’s offering,
in which Helge will talk in some detail about
the potential pitfalls of venture capital funding.
As the leaves on the trees start to turn color,
and the summer holidays are now memories
for most of us, I wish you all a very prosperous and healthy fall season. We’ll be back in
a couple of months with another issue focused
on very-high-resolution displays and digital
signage. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for future articles in
Information Display. n
SAVE THE DATE
Display Week 2014
June 1–6, 2014
JO IN S ID
development of:
equipment
their profession.
http://www.sid.org/
Membership.aspx
VISIT
INFORMATION
DISPLAY ON-LINE
For daily display
industry news
Jenny Donelan
New York, NY 10003
Fax: 212.460.5460
51
ID Ad Index p52_Layout 1 9/22/2013 7:38 PM Page 52
sustaining members
Abrisa Technologies
Advantech US, Inc.
AGC Asahi Glass (Silver Member)
Applied Concepts
Applied Nanotech
AU Optronics Corp.
Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd.
Cima Nanotech
CLEARink Displays
Corning Holding Japan
Dawar Technologies, Inc.
DisplaySearch
Dontech (Gold Member)
Eldim (Gold Member)
Elo TouchSystems
eMagin Corp.
Endicott Research Group
Epoxy Technology
EuropTec USA
Henkel (China) Investment Co.,
Ltd. (Gold Member)
IGNIS Innovation Inc.
Instrument Systems (Gold Member)
Intel Corp.
I-PEX
Japan Display, Inc.
Merck Display Technologies Ltd.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.
52
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
NANOSYS
NDF Special Light Products, B.V.
NEC Corp.
NextWindow
Noritake Itron Corp.
Novaled (Silver Member)
index to advertisers
Electronic Assembly ..................19
EuropTec USA ..........................27
Henkel Corp. ...........................C4
Instrument Systems ..................C2
Merck .........................................5
Ocular.......................................50
Radiant Zemax..........................13
Pixelligent .................................19
TFD.........................................C3
Touch Display Research ............18
Ocular
Optical Filters USA
Panasonic Corp.
Parker Chomerics
Photo Research
Radiant Zemax (Silver Member)
Rolic Technologies
Sartomer USA LLC
Sharp Corp.
Shenzhen Leaguer Optronics Co.,
Ltd.
SK Innovation
Synapse Product Development LLC
Tannas Electronics
Tatsuta Electric Wire & Cable Co.
Teijin Dupont Films Japan Ltd.
TFD, Inc.
Universal Display Corp.
Westar Display Technologies, Inc.
WINTEK Corp.
Sales Office
Joseph Tomaszewski
Advertising Sales Manager
Wiley
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
201-748-8895
jtomaszews@wiley.com
Advertising Sales Representative
Roland Espinosa
Wiley
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030
201-748-6819
respinosa@wiley.com
Sales Office – Europe
George Isaacs
12 Park View Court
The Paddock, Eaton Ford
St. Neots, Cambridgeshire
PE19 7SD U.K.
+44-(0)-1480-218400
george@gandg.demon.co.uk
Thin Film Devices with black bkgrd_Layout 1 9/22/2013 5:13 PM Page C3
Shad
Probow Cu
lems ring
?
THE PRIMER CURING PROCESS
PRIMER
SHADOW AREA
FPCB and Ink pattern
LOCA
LOC
A
LOCA
PRIMER CURES FULLY
Shadow Curing. Solved.
LOCTITE® Liquid Optically Clear Adhesives
LOCTITE® 3196PR, Primer Curing LOCAs provides key benefits:
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9/22/2013 5:00:28 PM
9/2/13 5:48 PM

display week 2013 review and solid-state lighting issue

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